Tag: Intangibles

May 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for the 157th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Firmament

Firmament now has a page on Steam and GOG; wishlisting it will help the visibility of the game. A teaser and a trailer have also been released on Cyan’s YouTube channel (possible spoilers); extended preview footage was released back in December.

In a post on Kickstarter, Cyan recommended backers to double check your survey information via Fangamer to ensure your shipment and delivery settings are up to date; wrong info will lead to delays in getting your digital rewards.

The system requirements are a bit beefy, with a minimum of an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X eight-core processor (16 CPUs), ~3.7 GHz or Intel i5 7000 series; 16 GB RAM of memory; AMD Radeon RX 5700XT or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB graphic card; DirectX 11; 20 GB disk space.

The game will release for Windows and MacOS on May 18, and on PS4, PS5 and PS VR 2 at a later date. PC VR will include free roam and teleport modes and will support Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Rift S, and Quest 2 via Oculus Link.

Mysterium

The annual Myst convention is only two months away, on June 30 in Spokane (WA)! A few reminders:
- book your hotel room before the closing date on May 28, since the discount code for the rooms will no longer work after that date;
- the cut-off date for swag is June 3, any orders not finalized by then will be unavailable (a limited number of swag items will be available at the registration table);
- online registration ends on June 16; walk-in registration will be possible, but registering before the deadline helps getting an accurate head count for the visit at Cyan’s HQ.
This year will be the first time Mysterium will be offering assistive listening technology (specifically a Williams Sound PPA 457 Personal Assistive Listening System): if you require one of these, please contact the committee by no later than June 1st so they can compile a headcount. Bear in mind that a deposit or a form of collateral will be required to use the devices.

The creative prompt for May is “Spring”; the deadline is May 31. Entries for the “You Fool!” prompt for April were from Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, and Talashar.

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

Events in the Cavern

☛ Between April and May two new Ages were made available to explorers: Eder Bahvahnter and Kalamee, the latter based on an Intangibles design by Cyan. Three clothing items have also been added; did you find them all?

☛ Maurus thanked everyone who attended the Live The Cavern Today show in the TCT Hood. A recording is available on the TCT website and the podcast feed (and through the streaming app of your choice).

☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is flying games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

OpenUru

Testing for items to be included in the Q2 update has begun. A few areas are in the works, but it is unclear whether they will be ready for a Q2 or a Q3 release.

☛ The first part of the expanded Descent has been added to Minkata alpha! So far, things are very roughly working, but a lot of multiplayer functions still need to be addressed, various visual fixes need addressing, and some suggestions and additions are still in the works.

Descent will certainly not be ready for Mysterium, but Doobes is hopeful to get at least the first leg ready within this year. This expanded version is planned to include elements from Myst V and the DIRT/Descent demo.

☛ Christopher Therburg gave an update on his Fall of D’ni Memorial Island project. Surface commitments convinced hit to turn this into a community project; work since then has progressed very quickly, thanks in particular to Tweek.

The island had already been in use some time prior of the Fall, but it is unclear for what purpose: possibly a wedding place, or more likely a small park overlooking Ae’gura. Another dock was added to the island, and a memorial was placed on the spot where the largest stalagmite once stood. The memorial was initially planned to be placed in Ae’gura, but issues with the two possible locations led to relocate it to this little island, which also offers a nice vista of Ae’gura and the whole Cavern.

The island has finally reached phase 5. There are still a few things that need to be done before it can be opened, hopefully in time for the anniversary (July 12, Leesahn 8). The island will be accessible via Chiso Preniv first, but in the future it will also be added to the Nexus, and also with a boat from Ae’gura.

Chris also mentioned he found a new Age somewhere in the Cavern, but it still needs further explorations and mapping before restoration can actually begin.

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. Another student has completed the 101 class and is working on their 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# 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, 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 Atrus as told in the book Myst: The Book of Atrus. After that they will begin the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉
More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
- Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
- For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
- On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
- The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
- Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.
Miscellanea

☛ In May, the Fan Ages Expeditions will continue the exploration of Alabaster by Dulcamara; another huge Age, with many puzzles, so it will take a couple more sessions. After that, they will begin the exploration of Tentsahveet by Jhon J. Jaguar.

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

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

Until then!
8 May 2023
A New Era in D’ni: Kalamee

On Monday, May 1st, 2023 (9679 Leefo 8), in a ceremony held in Chiso Preniv that gathered over 100 explorers and was announced on Cyan’s Twetter feed, Semjay and Patrick Dulebohn gave a speech (a transcript of which you can read below), then unveiled the linking book to Kalamee.

This was originally an unfinished Intangibles age that was picked up by Semjay to complete. You can find more details about the original design (spoiler alert) at The Lost Library of D’ni. The following is a spoiler-free outline of the backstory of the released age:

Ancient Kalameeans built the stone circles and erected the monoliths. One day, a big storm and catastrophic flood washed the earth mound and its contents away, leaving the stone structure of the quoit as seen today.

The age was later linked to by the D’ni; the inhabitants were chased away and a curtain wall was built around the valley, but the age was soon abandoned. Many years passed and eventually a father and daughter arrived and occupied the valley.

Many more years passed, and the age was found by the DRC. They updated the link-in point and constructed landing pads across the valley. In 2022, Semjay found the book, settled in the house and spent many months clearing the pathways, constructing weirs, repairing structures and replanting trees and crops.

Note than unlike other ages available in Chiso Preniv, Kalamee 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 postcard in his blog and chatlogs on the Beneath forums. Minasunda made a video of the event.

Speech transcript (click to expand )

Patrick Dulebohn:

Welcome to you all. Thank you for joining us today! Once again, we find ourselves here in Chiso Preniv, ready to open up another Age. And again, we will experience the history and majesty of the D’ni mastery of the Art thanks to the hard work of our volunteer restoration experts. Today, we bring you the Age of Kalamee.

A bit of the modern history of this Age: A little while back, the D’ni Restoration Council, or DRC as we more commonly know them, was gracious enough to open their “vault” to those of us currently restoring and residing in the cavern and its Ages. Needless to say, there was a lot of exciting material they had to show us! It shows they had been extremely busy all the way up until the very end.

With that in mind, amongst our other goals, we aim to finish the work that they started. Today, we offer the first Age that is part of that continuation of the DRC’s work, and that is Kalamee. The DRC had just discovered the Age and had begun to set up there when the last restoration ended, so there was quite a lot of work to do.

Still, you’ll soon see why it piqued the DRC’s interest, as well as the interest of the individual who is largely responsible for completing restoration efforts there. It is because of her tireless work that we are here today! That person is Semjay.

She spearheaded the majority of the time and energy to finish Kalamee’s extensive restoration and the results are truly a sight to see. We are here today because of her; to honor and celebrate her momentous achievement.

So, all that said; Semjay, anything you’d like to add?

Semjay:

Thank you, Patrick. I would like to say a big thank you to all the people who spent time and trouble to help me make the Age the best I possibly could, and to YOU all for being here. You guys keep this whole thing going, that’s for sure!

I see some of you wearing the t-shirt already! You can get it from the box by my desk downstairs.

So, are we ready?

Patrick Dulebohn:

I think they’re about ready, yes. Semjay’s got the honors.

2 May 2023
News Roundup #28

☛ As mentioned in the MOULa update post, the Relto start was given a new video, which was premiered on YouTube on the day of the update; you can watch it in English, French and German.

Eder Bahvahnter will open on April 17 at 12:00 KIT; you can get there via Elonin, or by sending “to Bahvahnter” in PM to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319).

Kalamee will open on May 1 at 13:00 KIT, in Chiso Preniv; Nosila will provide the music.

☛ A new update for the Myst Documentary was posted. There has been great progress on several fronts. The film’s treatment is now complete. A new trailer was completed, to be shown to potential partners to gather the additional funds required to finish the documentary; the trailer will be showcased at Mysterium 2023. Two new excerpts are also available in the article. The Vault of Stories so far has gathered more than 90 volumes with 535 pages.

☛ Doobes’ work on the Descent path and the possible integration of more Myst V ages was the focus of an article on Massively Overpowered.

☛ The Cavern Communications Network has released the 5th episode of its podcast The Water Cooler Show: an interview with Ametist.

☛ A few ages have been ported to VRChat, with Cyan’s approval: Bevin, Eder Tsogal, Kadish Gallery, Ahnonay Cathedral, and more. More info is available at the Virtual Reality Guild Discord server and VRC group.

13 April 2023
April 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for the 156th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Mysterium

Early bird registration and shirt orders are now closed; regular registration (slightly more expensive) will be open until June 16, and other swag items may still be purchased until June 3.

The prompt for February is “You Fool!”; the deadline is April 30. Entries for the “Idle Hands” prompt for March were Kefrith, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Talashar, and Laughingpineapple.

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

Events in the Cavern

☛IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 14 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is male protagonists in video games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

☛ April 21 is Leefo 1st in the D’ni calendar, the first day of D’ni year 9679. Hahr rahm gah shoraht!

OpenUru

☛ The Q1 update is on its final leg of testing before release, sometime next week. Briggs and Hazado have worked hard to restore the old DRC stage by the Tokotah plaza tent: its intended use will be for things like the story Town Halls or for speaking or music events.

There will be two versions for it: one is the full DRC build with microphone, which will be reserved for Cyan if they will ever wants to use it; it will have a fully blocked off collision wall. The other, public version will be a generic stage with reduced collisions, letting people get onto the stage and not getting in the way of tent climbing activities 😉

☛ Eder Bahvahnter, by Ametist, will be available immediately after the update; the book will be found in Elonin, and it will be a public instance available from all versions of that neighborhood.

☛ Another surprise Age will also be included in the update. Details are kept under secret; Doobes stated to be very impressed with it.

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.

Ages of Doobes

Doobes announced that phase one of the Descent expansion is likely to be completed in the very near future! If all goes well, he will be able to submit it for the Q2 update testing, and if no major bugs show up, this first phase will be ready in time for Mysterium.

Phase one consists mostly of the tract from the surface to the bottom of the Great Shaft you may be familiar with from Myst V or the Dirt demo. The biggest difference is that spiral path of the Shaft has been fully repaired, and you will be able to walk up and down the entirety of it (about two hours of continuous running). The elevators will still be there, and you could also try to just jump down if you dare!

There is a lot of stuff in this build that has never been tested for multiplay, so that is going to be a key item to test when the time comes. Doobes has also worked on a more realistic lighting of the location, while still keeping the mood of the scene.

Ultimately the goal is to open the full path from the surface to D’ni. Cyan has provided just enough with the Intangibles content for a phase two, but it still needs all the rough edges sanded down, so Doobes opted for a release in stages to keep up interest. Beyond phase two no concept art is available, so unless Cyan will have specific features they want included, the design of the path up to the Cavern will be open to suggestions.

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 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, Wednesday and 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 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 Atrus as told in the book Myst: The Book of Atrus. After that they will begin 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.

There will be no Story Night on April 8, due to it being Easter weekend and because r’Tay will be traveling.

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 April, the Fan Ages Expeditions will complete the expedition to Elsewhere by Denost. It is a huge Age, with a lot of swimming, running and many puzzles, so they have not finished it yet! After that, they will begin the exploration of Alabaster by Dulcamara.

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

March ended with the CavFunding at 85% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 691%, with 20% extra expenses. Population was at 47,581 (⇑252), with 1174 unique visits.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 6 (Leefo 13, 9679) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
2 April 2023
Mysterium 2022

The XXIII Mysterium was held in Denver, CO on August 12–14, with the panels and presentations streamed to both Twitch and YouTube.

Minasunda and Civer Gaming made summary videos; Belford wrote a two-part summary ([1], [2]) in his blog, commenting on Cyan’s announcements.

Friday started at 10:00 KIT with the Opening Announcements and Cyan’s “State of the Union”, with Eric A. Anderson (Creative Director) and Hannah Gamiel (Development Director). They are super busy developing Firmament (they also showed a preview video), so they will combine Myst’s and Riven’s anniversaries next year. They will share something new every month, including challenge coins, Cyan logo shirts, re-releasing the ebook versions of the Myst novels, and digging through Riven’s archives. They are working with members of the community on “special, secret projects”. There are no plans for an official remake of Uru.

At 11:30 the Walkabout Mini Golf: Myst panel with Don Carson, Henning Koczy, Lucas Martell, Edward McAndrew of Mighty Coconut studio discussed their approach to design for immersive gameplay with realistic physics, in combining their VR mini golf game with Myst’s iconic island.

At 14:00 the The Last Clockwinder panel with John Austin and Anita Tung of Pontoco studio talked about their game, developed with Cyan Ventures (which has shifted role from publishing arm to development-support group).

At 15:00 Kefrith’s Cryptic Contraption presentation revealed his surprise Myst-inspired creation, discussing the setbacks he got into in the creative process.

At 16:00 the full recording of the concert held by the NULP Dance Group in Elonin was released as a YouTube Premiere.

At 18:00 it was time for the trip to the Meow Wolf: Convergence Station interactive art series.

Saturday started at 10:00 KIT with the Cyan Q&A, with Eric Anderson, Rand Miller, Ryan “greydragon” Warzecha discussing what is happening at Cyan, their artistic and technical approach to game design, and the rationale behind some decisions on Myst and Uru lore.

At 11:15 the MOULa Fan Creations: Tech Development panel with Colin “Maccodemonkey” Cornaby, Adam “Hoikas” Johnson, Darryl “Paradox” Pogue, Paul “rarified” Richards presented the latest development news about MOULa, with an update on the process to make the client cross-platform. To get involved, you can contact the OpenUru team (testing) on Discord, or the H’uru team (developing) on GitHub and IRC.

At 11:45 the MOULa Fan Creations: Ages panel with Ametist, Patrick “Doobes” Dulebohn, Harley “Calum Traveler”, Keith “Tweek” Lord discussed the challenges of creating and modifying environments for MOULa. The current tool for creating ages is Korman for Blender. You can find tutorials in the GoW wiki; Calum Traveler also made a series of videos.

At 13:45 the Area Man Lives panel with Amy Green, Ryan Green, Mike Perrotto of Numinous Games, and Ryan “greydragon” Warzecha of Cyan, discussed their VR game produced with Cyan Ventures.

At 14:45 the highlights of the concert held by the NULP Dance Group in Elonin was released as a YouTube Premiere.

At 16:00 Erik Oberg’s Libraries of Myst presentation analyzed how libraries fit into Myst, both in the explicit sense of literal, in-game libraries and the broader presence of librarian principles and practices in the Myst universe, as well as how Myst fits into real-world libraries.

At 19:45 the Achenar: Redemption in One Part panel with Guy Sprung, who played Achenar in Myst IV: Revelation, discussed the process behind playing a character who experiences both sides of being the villain and the savior.

At 20:45 it was time for Cavern Feud, hosted by Dan Binder, in which teams competed against each other to see who best knows how the Myst community responds to various survey questions, like “what would Yeesha name her cat?” or “which Myst animal would make the best pet?”

Sunday started at 10:00 KIT with the Myst Documentary Sneak Peek and Q&A, with Elana Bogdan, Katie “Kha’tie” Postma, Joshua Reinstein, Philip Shane, giving insights into the creation of The Myst Documentary, which will cover Myst, Riven and Uru, the near-collapse of Cyan in 2005 and its climb back in the following years, and the new era that started with Obduction. Attendees had an exclusive sneak peak of the documentary, then they showcased the new online Community Vault of Myst Stories.

At 12:00 the Closing Ceremonies were held, wrapping up this year’s convention, running the prize drawing, and announcing next year’s location: Spokane!

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

Looking forward to next year!

14 August 2022
October 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for October’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Events in the Cavern

Minasunda announced two upcoming events:
- on Friday 8 at 13:00 KIT Karel will host a party onboard the Argosy, a beautiful ship built by Jaruku; sea shanties will be played on the music stream. The party will be held on the Deep Island shard; to get to Argosy, use the “Puzzle Ages Volume II” book in your Relto and link to Laki’anay. From the link-in point, take the ferry then head to the lighthouse, where you will find the linking book. You can find a video guide here.
- On October 31 at 14:00 KIT there will be a Halloween Party, in Mir-o-Bot’s Teledahn. To get there, PM “to teledahn” or “link” to Mir-o-Bot (#32319). As this year Halloween is on a Sunday, Radio Free D’ni will take over the music stream. Yoda will provide the creepy ambience with his special effects and the Nulp Dance Group will conjure the ghosts!
Additionally, the Cavern Tour will as usual be held on Saturday 9 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. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

Lake pellets

Calum Traveler first asked age builders to test new ages on dedicated shards like Destiny or Minkata Alpha.

Next, he mentioned that tests are being held to restart the Cavern lake light cycle. Time to warm up the Er’cana factory ovens! If you plan to contribute pellets, keep in mind that consistency if preferable over quantity.

Net2 errors

Rarified gave an update about the “Net2 error” crashes. A possible fix has been found (there was a transcription error in some code that was adopted from H’uru during the last update). If the testing goes well, it will be handed to Chogon for testing on Staging and ultimately on MOULa.

The Net2 error is particularly insidious to debug, because it originates from the server software; fan shards, including Minkata, use alternatives (MOSS or DirtSand) where the problem does not show up, and only the live MOULa server has a population sizable enough to produce mega-neighborhoods.

The next scheduled MOULa update will happen late November or early December and will focus on (a lot of) fan content.

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 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.

From the Surface to D’ni

Doobes announced that Descent is nearing the Phase 1 final checks, and Phase 2 will start soon. Once they will be sure the content from Myst V is properly converted, they will start building the rest of the path to D’ni.

All interested age builders are welcome to help with the process, assembling a section of the path that lies past Descent. Calum Traveler already submitted a section between the caldera and the first cave, to make the first locations fit better under the volcano.

Once Phase 2 nears completion, the results will be hosted on Minkata Alpha so that testers can examine and pick it apart. After that will come phase 3, wiring everything so that the entire path will be navigable without spawning.

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

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 Kohdalan and Tyldalan, by Corvus, Wodan, Itep Edor and other creators; the rest of the month they took the Path of the Lost Ages, by Melvin, starting in Palamary bay.

In October, they will investigate the mysteries of Alabaster’s Depths, by Dulcamara. After that, the main plan is to start again from the very beginning, a few ages from 2005, but they may also dedicate a few weeks to the most popular ones, either guided or free-for-all.
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.
D’ni Language Classes

R’Tayrtahn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. 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 Monday–Friday starting at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, and on Wednesday–Friday 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, planned to start on October 23; r’Tayrtahn will be assisted by Axenna.

Then it will be time for 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.
Mysterium news

The date for the XXIII Mysterium in Denver will be August 12–14, 2022. The theme will be Myst III: Exile, celebrating its 21st birthday, with a particular emphasis on Voltaic.

Submissions for t-shirt designs are open. Favoured design will be those incorporating Blucifer, Denver International Airport’s demon horse sculpture.

No announcements are expected at the moment about Starry Expanse. All we know is that the project has not been cancelled.

Rand’s Let’s play was really popular, hopefully he will be up for something similar, along with Robyn. The committee will look into hybrid events held both in-person and online; panels in the future will have short breaks between them.

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

September ended with the CavFunding at 58% (CavCon 2.6) and the reserve at 330%, with 24% extra expenses. Population was at 41,989 (⇑340), with 1284 unique visits. Donations were down but reserves are still healthy; the extra expenses were due to the Net2 errors/backend crashes.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, November 6 (Leevofo 14) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
4 October 2021
Mysterium 2021

Like last year, the XXII Mysterium was held entirely online, on July 16–18, with the panels and presentations streamed to both Twitch and YouTube.

Friday started at 18:00 KIT with Rand Miller playing through Myst and giving some insights in the design process. One highlight was the medallion on the planetarium door.

At 19:00, it was time for the discussion rooms, this year held on the Mysterium Discord server, and for the marker missions in MOULa. You can still get them by PMing Mir-o-Bot (#32319) or MinBot (#9292763) the command “sendme 10800192” for the Red markers or “sendme 10801032” for the Blue ones. While you’re there, make sure to grab the Mysterium shirt in your Relto wardrobe, it won’t be available afterward!

Saturday started at 8:30 KIT with a message from the Committee, giving some info on the organisation of this year’s convention.

The first panel was at 9:00, with some members of the Myst IV: Revelation team: Meinert Hansen (Art Director/Sr. Concept Artist), Brian Wrench (Actor – Sirrus) and Geneviève Lord (Producer), discussing how Myst IV evolved in its looks, styles and immersive design.

At 11:00 it was time for the Myst State of the Union panel, with Eric A. Anderson (Creative Director) and Hannah Gamiel (Development Director) presenting Cyan’s newly re-imagined version of Myst before its release for PC/VR and Mac.

At 12:30 the Cyan Dev Team Q&A panel, with Abner Coimbre, Brandon Collins, Hannah Gamiel, Karl Johnson and Josh Van Veldhuizen discussing what it means to be a developer at Cyan and how they adapted to working from home.

At 13:30 the Cyan Art Team Q&A panel, with Eric Anderson, Blake Bjerke, Jeremiah Castro, Autumn Palfenier and Derrick Robinson talking about how the look of a game is established and what inspiration they draw from in designing worlds.

At 15:00 Vincent Weaver presented his Apple II Myst Demake, talking about the challenges involved with getting a fully playable version of Myst working on an 8-bit system from the 1970s, fitting on a reasonable number of floppy disks. To learn more (or try it yourself!), see Vince’s website.

At 16:00 Chuck Carter (original Myst Artist) presented his reworking of the Selenitic Age for Unreal Engine 5, which will add some new twists (e.g. the maze ship is now destroyed). The redesign will have original music by Conductor/Composer Lucas Richman. You can follow Chuck on his website, Twitter and Instagram.

At 17:00 it was time for the discussion rooms, with two focused chats beside open discussions: “Unwritten Character Workshop”, about creating a character for the Myst RPG, and “Dancing with Annacat”, to get some exercise after sitting and watching streams all day.

Sunday started at 8:30 KIT with a message from the Committee, giving some info and announcing the location of Mysterium 2022, one that will give attendees the true Myst experience 😉

The first panel was at 9:00, with Maxx Hirsch’s honors thesis “Finding Tomahna”, analyzing Myst as a product of American 1990s cultural movements and ideas, considering attitudes towards war, violence, new technology, reading, community, and diversity. You can read the full text here.

At 1o:00 documentary filmmaker Phillip Shane gave an update and a sneak peek of the Myst Documentary, along with his collaborators Elana Bogdan, Will Cavendish, Rachel Kittner, Anais Michel, Katie Postma, Joshua Reinstein and Randy Woods. You can follow and support the development of the documentary on the official website.

At 11:30 the Uru Worldbuilders Panel, with Eric Anderson, Mike Hines, Doug McBride, Steve Ogden and Bill Slease discussed about the original development of Uru, from DIRT and Mudpie up to the GameTap era.

At 12:30 the MOULa Fan Development Panel, with Mark “Chogon” DeForest, Patrick “Doobes” Dulebohn, John “Marten” Johns, Adam “Hoikas” Johnson, Keith “Tweek” Lord, Darryl “dpogue/Paradox” Pogue and Paul “rarified” Richards discussed how fan developers and creators are keeping Uru alive and well, with client bugfixes, QoL improvements and new fan-made ages. To get involved, you can contact the OpenUru team (testing) on Discord, or the H’uru team (developing) on GitHub and IRC.

At 14:00 the Unwritten Update panel with Veronica Hamilton gave some updates on the RPG and its role in Cyan Ventures, discussing the design and how it focuses on non-violent solutions. To learn more, visit the official website.

At 15:00 it was time for Cyan Games Completed Rapidly, a round of speedrunning, with some unusual categories like Myst on the Apple II, and a few races.

At 17:30 it was time for the discussion rooms, with no preset topics, and the Speedrun After Party, in which the speedrunners chatted with the attendees about the runs and racesfrom the panel.

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

Looking forward to next year!

20 July 2021
June 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for June’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Events in the Cavern

Right before the Meeting, Mystitech released The Lost Art episode 12 “States of Possession” as a Premiere on YouTube.

Nosila will host a music program, “The Times They Are a-Changin”, about equality, protest and hope. The stream will be on Monday 14 at 13:00 KIT; the main location will be the Ae’gura plaza.

If you have an idea for an event and need help organising it, there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 12 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.

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!

A new era in D’ni

Doobes started by announcing the release of Tre’bivdil, by Lontahv, which happened stealthily the day before the Meeting, and relayed a presentation by the author:

Tre’bivdil is best classified as a modern garden Age. The geometric shapes and primary elements that form its core are described by simple phrases that are shared with a set of phrases from ancient training manuscripts discovered by the modern day Guild of Writers.

The name, which can be translated roughly to ‘amongst everything’, reflects the combination of these very basic elements together.

While the weather is generally clement, care must be taken after a rainstorm as the rocks can become slippery.

Vothol Gallery’s release is not too far away either, and it will also be an unannounced surprise. So keep checking, you could be the first to find out!

He then discussed the big news that happened just the day before the Meeting: the public release of the Intangible assets by Cyan, under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The files include concept art, documents, audio and textures as well as 3ds Max files in varying states of completion. For developers, this means free access to complete any of the content; for everyone else, it means places like Descent are very likely be greatly expanded, and ages like Kahlo, Rebek, Katha Island and others could see the light of day, someday!

It should be noted that the content is very unfinished, so it would take quite a long while to see most of it completed. As always, patience and Cautious Optimism™ are needed, but these locations have just become a little more concrete. Doobes himself has been working for a while on expanding Descent and opening up the rest of the Great Shaft and the path from D’ni to the surface.

The Guild of Archivists is also taking a more direct role, in relation to compatibility with Uru lore, in the approval process for new fan content on MOULa. Doobes also mentioned that more client improvements and more fan ages will soon be up for testing on Minkata alpha, including works from Ametist and Dulcamara (not Elodea yet, but newer ages).

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

OpenUru

Rarified mentioned that the Intangible assets have been archived on both the OpenUru and the Guild of Writers repositories.

There is some new fan content in the pipeline which should be made available on Minkata prime for testing soon. Meanwhile, Marten continues to port the many user experience improvements, that have been in the H’uru fork for a long time, to the Minkata/MOULa client.

The next major update will probably be timed in late July or early August, though there might be an intermediate update before then, for an upcoming special event. Things to look out and test will be: fixes for subworlds (e.g. the Ahnonay gondola chair, the Teledahn bucket, the Gahreesen lift), frame rate unlock, general performance and QoL improvements.

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.

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 visited Lonirvan by Jhon J. Jaguar, Eh’ko by D’eux, The Cathedral by DenDwaler, Ahreesen Melin by Semjay, Kahntinoy by Rich, Fena Barel by Wodan & Hans.

For June, the plan is to visit Alabaster by Dulcamara, which will take at least 3 sessions. After that, it will be time for Laki’anay and related ages, by the New Age Project.
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.
D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn (a.k.a. r’Tayrtahn) gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

There are daytime openings on Monday through Friday; those interested should contact Rehn (see KI# below). Evening classes are not currently available.

Seven students are taking the classes at various stages of completion; two of them are new.
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 Monday–Friday starting at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 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 – Europe is in synch with original Story Night. They have finished the story from The Book of D’ni; next week they will start with the game Exile.

R’Tayrtahn has been uploading the Stories on his YouTube channel. The videos are usually uploaded a few days after the live event.
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 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.
Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news about the convention:
- Meinert Hansen, Robyn Miller, Brian Wrench are the first 3 special guests announced;
- event submissions are still open until June 20, if time allows;
- the Westin Alexandria will not cancel bookings automatically, you will have to do it yourself via the Marriott website or by phone;
- the location for Mysterium 2022 is not set, the Committee will go through the normal bid review process.
And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

May ended with the CavFunding at 94% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 253%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 40,360 (⇑304), with 1303 unique visits. Donations almost matched expenses.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 3 (Leesahn 1) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
6 June 2021
Intangibles Assets & Unexplored Branches

In an surprise move, Cyan has released the Intangibles assets under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The assets include design documents, textures, audio, and 3D models for ages and Cavern areas – including Kahlo, Rebek and Katha Island – that were in the planned for addition to Uru Live. Some date from 2000 or even earlier!

The assets are in various stages of development, but most are very unfinished, and never appeared in game for good reasons (some concepts may not ever work with the game engine). So tempering expectations is advisable 😉 For a short time, the assets were previously only available to a select group of fan developers who signed a NDA, and are now open for anyone to dissect or even fully develop.

The Guild of Writers’ H’uru Team is currently working on bringing the majority of these assets into their version control system to facilitate collaboration. The files are available at the OpenUru Foundry, and at the Guild of Writers (direct link) as initially provided by Cyan.

It was also announced that Unexplored Branches – the expanded universe of the Myst/Uru franchise, authorized by Cyan while still not fully canon – now includes the announced Intangibles and also any fan-created ages or locations added to MOULa, along with the TRPG Unwritten.

5 June 2021