Annversery

Welcome to the five-year anniversary of free-to-play Myst Online. I would like to start by thanking everyone who helped make MOULa what it is today. I would like to not only thank those that have donated to Cyan, but also those who have made fan content, helped with programming, event organization, helped out explorers, and even those who just ‘hung out’ in the city and talked with people. All these people helped to make this game as great as it is, so lets have a round of applause for everyone in the MOULa community!

Now for the fun part of this event: it’s time for Myst series trivia!

Did you know that the fortress in the mechanical age was based on a dungeons and dragons campaign that Rand ran? I once read that Rand and his brothers would play D&D often and Rand would make dungeons filled with complex puzzles. Interesting precursor, eh?

Did you know that in Myst III, you were originally going to walk into Atrus’s study and find him collapsed over his desk after being attacked by Saavedro? We know this thanks to concept art for the game. The caption under the concept art describes the scene, but not why it was changed, I suspect this was too violent for the game’s opening.

Speaking of Myst III, did you know Myst III is one of the last games Presto Studios made before closing? Presto closed after the games industry was shifting towards 3d console games and away from PC adventure games. It was a shift they didn’t like. If they hadn’t got the contract to make Myst III, they would have made a fourth Journeyman Project game. That series is about time travel and all we know about the fourth game is that it ‘illustrated one of the potentially dangerous outcomes of time travel technology‘. You know, I kind of wish they hadn’t got the Myst III contract since that sounds epic!

Did you know that some of the full motion sequences in the series were very hard to produce? The scene where Saavedro throws a fire orb and steals the book (in Myst III), and the scene where the scribe takes off in the meglave were Releeshahn particularly painful to make and took hours to edit.

Did you know that the frog in Riven (called a ‘Ytram‘) is named after sound designer ‘Marty O’Donne‘. Ytram is Marty backwards.[/nod]

Did you know that there was originally going to be a sixth smaller island in Riven*? There where a few early screen shots online and the island can be seen in-game even though it can’t be reached.

*Citation can be found on this page: http://mystarchive.com/rivenil/mistakes.html

That’s all the trivia I have for now! Thank you for listening.

At this point we talked about the travail. Nothing too important was said so I am not going to post the chatlog.

Heritage Night: Game Backstory

Hello, and welcome to Heritage Night. For those of you newish to the game, welcome. My name is Jamie Marchant and I run this series of events called Heritage Night. At Heritage Night, I talk about the game’s history and this month I will give an overview of the game’s back-story.

Here is the story: in the late eighties, archaeologists uncovered a new civilization in New Mexico. It would soon be known as the D’ni. The game company Cyan took interest in the project and managed to obtain some historical documents, including a few interesting journals from the late 1800s. After translating them, it was discovered that they talked about Atrus and his family. It is rumoured that Cyan is ‘hiding’ these original books in the basement of their current headquarters. There was also a man or woman (never fully described) who helped the family out. Cyan thought this was interesting and made the game ‘Myst’ based on this story. Later, they made several other games based on these stories.

Now, onto the story of ‘URU Ages Beyond Myst’. In the story, the person you play as has been ‘called’ (felt he should come) to New Mexico. Specifically, to a place known as ‘the Cleft’. This is where the game ‘ begins’. Now in the URU and Myst Online universe, all the other games are fictions by Cyan. This was so Cyan could rewrite parts of the cannon (story) without worrying about continuity problems.

Back to the story: The Cleft happens to be the place where Atrus and his family lived at one point. Through the Cleft, it was possible to get a book to take you to an age called Relto (the first age you see in Myst Online). People explored the cavern and most were alone while some were together. In ‘real life,’ those who played together were playing the closed Beta for the on-line portion of ‘Ages Beyond Myst’. The beta was cancelled by UbiSoft (who published ‘hard’ copies of URU at the time). I believe UbiSoft felt the on-line game did not have enough potential for them to run it longer than the beta. If I recall correctly, the story for this part was that there was a horrifying shriek and creatures called the Bahro attacked. Everyone was magically sent to their Relto and told it was too dangerous to return.

Exclusive ages were created for the on-line game and these were made into expansions for the game. Later a version of the game was sold with the expansion known as ‘URU: Complete Chronicles’.

Cyan never gives up on an online URU. In 2007, they found someone willing to try it, in spite of its failure. The company was Turner Broadcasting System and they were willing to run an online URU game on their GameTap service. The game was known as ‘Myst Online URU Live’ and has the same code-base as the game we are playing now. Sadly, it only lasted a year before it, too, was cancelled. This was due to lack of subscribers.

The story for this time was that the organization in charge (the DRC) was running out of money. People left since there would be nobody around to fix problems they might encounter. There was also a slight threat of danger. The group of intelligent creatures called the Bahro used to be slaves to D’ni. They were enslaved by a tablet and only recently freed. Some of these creatures wished to attack us(since we reminded them of their ‘masters’. We were told that we needed to find a way to fight them off right before the DRC ran out of money.

For years not much happened, but people did visit the cavern in secret. In reality, they were playing the offline game which can be illegally modded to play fan ages and to play online.

Finally, in 2010 Cyan, released ‘Myst Online URU Live again’ which was a free, and eventually open source, version of the game. It lasted till last year when there was a server hiccup and all progress was lost. Leading us to what fans call ‘Myst Online URU Live again again’ which is the current ‘incarnation’ of the game that we are playing.

The story is as follows: we have returned to the cavern after being away. The DRC will allow us to be here but we may not see them often. The DRC (Cyan) is now taking donations to keep things going. The story is the same as it was at the end of 2007.

Thanks for listening to my summary of the games history. To read more on specific events, check out the Heritage Night archives. They can be found here: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/archive/

Due to a bug in the current code of the game, the intro video can not be played. If you’d like to see it, it can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M1vD8JhJxM.

I will take questions at this time but a warning, before I do, anything you say will end up in a chatlog that I will post to the Heritage Night site.

Best Of Hertiag Night 2014

Hello and welcome, It has now been one year since I ‘rebooted’ Heritage Night. Today, I’m going to tell my story; the story of how I got involved with Heritage Night and what some of the highlights were.

But first some back story: the original Heritage Night was put on by DimensionTravelerCalum back in 2010. Each week, Calum would tell a story from URU’s past (2003 and 2007). When Calum had exhausted all of the stories he could tell, he started retelling old stories. This got tiring for Calum after a while. He asked for volunteers, but nobody else was interested. So, eventually, he Hertiage Night and it remained closed till I picked it up last year.

One night in September or November of last year, I was thinking about all the cool stuff I had seen that others had not. Thinking about the hacking that lead to the magic hoods, I wished that others could see what I had seen that day. I then realized that I could reproduce the effects in The Hood Of Illusions. I also realized that I could do many similar cool things and retell the stories of MOULa (2010-2014). I had to build up some confidence since I’m shy, but eventually I announced my first event in December. By that time, I had most of the 2014’s Heritage Nights planned in my head. Calum let me use the Heritage Night name and blog. Now, I will discuss my favourite events. After the presentation, I will put links on the Heritage Night blog where you can read the scripts for the events I will mention.

My favourite event was the ‘hacks in the city’ recreation. The presentation was spectacular and I think people liked it more than I did. (It’s less impressive when you know what’s coming next). At the event, I retold the story of the hacks in the city that caused Cyan to create two ‘hacks allowed’ hoods. It was so impressive, that people have requested I redo the event and ‘film’ it. I can’t guarantee that I will do any event, but I do plan on doing it next year sometime. I couldn’t have done it without Stone, who handled the ‘magic’ for the event.

My second favourite event was the ‘Light The Lake’ event, in which Stone and I showed the maximum possible level of brightness the lake can go to (when fed a large amount of ‘good’ pellets). We also showed the ‘drunken Dalek’ lake measuring device. The assets are still in game, even though it was disabled before the end of GameTap (2007) MOUL.

My third favourite (and last for this visit) was my ‘OHB’ event. OHB is a community member who has done a lot of interesting things for the community, including the creation of two interactive (robot) avatars. What was so great about this event is that I got OHB to come into the cavern as a special guest. He had not been in cavern for a few years. His robot came the next day and stayed a week. I did ask him to bring in his robot as a surprise, but he could not do it since he had to go to the hospital and almost didn’t make it at all.(His problem turned out to only be miner in nature, so he is OK now). It was very nice of him to turn on his robot for a whole week and he was a fun special guest to have on stage with me.

So those are the events I wanted to talk about tonight. They all went extremely well and as planned for the most part (if not better). I did have backup plans, but thankfully, I did not have to rely on them. After all, doing special events like the ones I talked about is why I signed up for Hertiage Night! I’m going to try and think up some even cooler things for next year!

Fun fact: Most of the people (if not all) who helped me out are in the same time-zone as me! This makes it convenient to work on events!

Speeches from my froviot Heritage Nights:
https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/heritage-night-ii/ – OHB entry.

https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/hertiage-night-iii/ -The fun house

https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/1401/

Q&A Chat log:

(12/14 15:20:52) Chat.log started…
(12/14 15:21:21)  spatialkay: i saw ohb a few weeks ago, is he ok?
(12/14 15:21:56)  Zeke365: How do you get speaches to appear in game like that so quick?
(12/14 15:22:11)  Neutiquam Erro: Cut and paste i guess
(12/14 15:22:23)  HeritageNightGuy: Oh yes he managed to make to the event just fine and his trip to the histportal was just a stomic bug I think
(12/14 15:22:38)  HeritageNightGuy: OHB is doing great these days
(12/14 15:22:42)  spatialkay: good to hear
(12/14 15:22:46)  Neutiquam Erro: Yes
(12/14 15:22:54)  spatialkay: havent seen him for a while
(12/14 15:22:55)  HeritageNightGuy: Yes cut and past is how I type things so fast
(12/14 15:23:13)  HeritageNightGuy: as you can see my nornal typing is much slower and has a lot more spelling problems
(12/14 15:23:29)  Neutiquam Erro: Lol mine too
(12/14 15:23:38)  Zeke365: Forom word document or notepad
(12/14 15:24:01)  HeritageNightGuy: OHB was here right after the vault wipe but I have not seen him recently myself
(12/14 15:24:14)  HeritageNightGuy: I use OpenOffice acctully
(12/14 15:24:23)  Zeke365: Okay
(12/14 15:24:28)  HeritageNightGuy: So I can make docuements in my preferad envomrnet of Linux
(12/14 15:24:37)  HeritageNightGuy: I have also found it tanfers better
(12/14 15:24:55)  Zeke365: So how does the bots differ from the regular avtar
(12/14 15:24:57)  HeritageNightGuy: From OpenOffice then word
(12/14 15:25:16)  HeritageNightGuy: They are controlled by a computer rather then a person
(12/14 15:25:46)  HeritageNightGuy: So intead of someone thinking up what to say each time, you type something and the bot decode and comes up with a response
(12/14 15:26:30)  Zeke365: Some times they ingore me
(12/14 15:26:42)  Neutiquam Erro: I think they have crashed then
(12/14 15:27:09)  Zeke365: or they want to have some fun with us
(12/14 15:27:19)  HeritageNightGuy: For OHBoat(OHBs bot) you have to end your sentence with OHBot or else he will not respound
(12/14 15:27:26)  HeritageNightGuy: *OHB’s
(12/14 15:27:53)  Zeke365: i remeber when lyrobot was on I enjoyed playing with him
(12/14 15:28:16)  HeritageNightGuy: OHB’s ‘BOMB'(IC his arn nemesis’s BOMB) was very limited in what you could do with him
(12/14 15:29:05)  HeritageNightGuy: Lrybot hardly had any intellence and was more of
(12/14 15:29:13)  HeritageNightGuy: ‘command system’.
(12/14 15:29:31)  Zeke365: How about stone5
(12/14 15:29:33)  HeritageNightGuy: Lryobot was creatred so that people could make they own magic in The Fun House
(12/14 15:30:09)  Zeke365: Okay
(12/14 15:30:22)  HeritageNightGuy: Stone5 has a specail client which can opporate as a bot or avitar depending on what Stone wants
(12/14 15:30:24)  Zeke365: Someone crashed
(12/14 15:30:33)  HeritageNightGuy: Oh dear!
(12/14 15:30:40)  HeritageNightGuy: Well this Q&A will be on the blog
(12/14 15:30:46)  Neutiquam Erro: Spatial k
(12/14 15:31:18)  HeritageNightGuy: Stone5 can also enable and disable commans on the fly depending on what he wants
(12/14 15:31:42)  HeritageNightGuy: The bot was also created to do things in The Fun House
(12/14 15:31:45)  Zeke365: Cool so I never know if I talkin to the bot or him
(12/14 15:32:09)  HeritageNightGuy: Yeah that’s kind of wird
(12/14 15:32:32)  HeritageNightGuy: The avatar ‘Stone’ is controlled by the same player and is never a bot
(12/14 15:32:38)  Neutiquam Erro: Wb spatial
(12/14 15:32:46)  HeritageNightGuy: [I should correct that for the blog]
(12/14 15:32:53)  spatialkay: network error
(12/14 15:33:02)  HeritageNightGuy: Net 6?
(12/14 15:33:11)  spatialkay: think so
(12/14 15:33:20)  HeritageNightGuy: Uh probally nothing to worry about .
(12/14 15:33:30)  Zeke365: i hope we have an update soon that will fix that
(12/14 15:33:51)  HeritageNightGuy: Accutlly it IS nothing to worry about and I think it’s unfixable
(12/14 15:34:04)  HeritageNightGuy: The problem is just that your commincation with the sever is dropped
(12/14 15:34:23)  Neutiquam Erro: Could be for any reason i guess
(12/14 15:34:25)  HeritageNightGuy: Although I guess we could change the dailog to someting more ‘user freindly’ then ‘Net 6′
(12/14 15:34:38)  spatialkay: i think we had a local outage that caused it
(12/14 15:34:43)  Zeke365: So it dropped by wifi connection sometimes this may be off subject sorry
(12/14 15:34:59)  spatialkay: i dont worry about it, its just a nuisance
(12/14 15:35:04)  HeritageNightGuy: I don’t mind, I’m an IT guy
(12/14 15:35:15)  HeritageNightGuy: I may cut this part out though
(12/14 15:35:16)  Zeke365: Just like the guild of lags
(12/14 15:35:49)  HeritageNightGuy: WiFi can cause Net 6’s but they can be a glich anywhere from here to the server.
(12/14 15:36:10)  HeritageNightGuy: Not much that can be done about it, it’s like when YouTube videos pause or start buffering
(12/14 15:36:37)  Zeke365: and will never stop
(12/14 15:36:53)  HeritageNightGuy: Probally not
(12/14 15:37:08)  Zeke365: Well thank you for a wonderful evening I have to go see ya
(12/14 15:37:18)  HeritageNightGuy: Bye see you later
(12/14 15:37:18)  Neutiquam Erro: Bye zeke
(12/14 15:37:29)  HeritageNightGuy: Anyone else have anything they want to say?
(12/14 15:37:49)  Neutiquam Erro: When is the next heritage night?
(12/14 15:37:59)  Neutiquam Erro: And the address of the blog
(12/14 15:38:25)  HeritageNightGuy: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/
(12/14 15:38:41)  Neutiquam Erro: Ty
(12/14 15:38:50)  HeritageNightGuy: I have to plan my next year of Hertiage Nights but it will be in January
(12/14 15:39:11)  Neutiquam Erro: Oh that’s quick, i was thinking later than that
(12/14 15:40:01)  Neutiquam Erro: you will publicise it too on the forums?
(12/14 15:40:31)  HeritageNightGuy: Yes indeed though I don’t know when in January and probally won’t know till next year
(12/14 15:40:54)  HeritageNightGuy: I try to have 1 Heritage Night per month but I’ve run out of ideas form my 2013 planning
(12/14 15:41:35)  Neutiquam Erro: Dies the dite have an archive too?
(12/14 15:41:39)  Neutiquam Erro: Oops
(12/14 15:41:44)  Neutiquam Erro: Does the site
(12/14 15:42:03)  HeritageNightGuy: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/archive/
(12/14 15:42:09)  Neutiquam Erro: Ah good thanks
(12/14 15:42:15)  Neutiquam Erro: I’ll take a look there
(12/14 15:42:54)  HeritageNightGuy: Any other questionts
(12/14 15:43:29)  spatialkay: how often is the fun house and hood of illusions open?
(12/14 15:44:16)  HeritageNightGuy: The Hood Of Illusions is only open for events and sadly The Fun House can be open whenever a Grey Hat wants it to bee
(12/14 15:45:04)  HeritageNightGuy: Acctually I will have to track down some Gray Hats and find out what the status of it is. As I’m not sure what ‘state’ the hoods are in this time round
(12/14 15:45:29)  HeritageNightGuy: They haven’t been used in a whil since The Grey Hats have mostly ‘moved on’.
(12/14 15:45:30)  Neutiquam Erro: The fun house has been opened a couple of times recently
(12/14 15:45:45)  HeritageNightGuy: But that does give me an idea…
(12/14 15:46:59)  HeritageNightGuy: It’s a suprise
(12/14 15:47:08)  Neutiquam Erro: Lol
(12/14 15:47:23)  Neutiquam Erro: Will the heritage nights be at a similar time to now?
(12/14 15:47:43)  HeritageNightGuy: There are normally on Saturday but yes normally at this time
(12/14 15:47:52)  Neutiquam Erro: That’s good
(12/14 15:48:02)  HeritageNightGuy: I also occrtionally appear at the AGM if I have things planned by then.
(12/14 15:50:04)  HeritageNightGuy: well it looks to me like this meeting is over
(12/14 15:50:12)  Neutiquam Erro: Yes
(12/14 15:50:20)  HeritageNightGuy: Goodbye
(12/14 15:50:24)  Neutiquam Erro: I look forward to the next
(12/14 15:50:28)  Neutiquam Erro: Bye
(12/14 15:50:30) From spatialkay: im shy too. so i understand
(12/14 15:50:39)  ChristaM: goodbye
(12/14 15:50:41) To spatialkay: Thanks
(12/14 15:50:52)  Skydiver Mir: bye

Heritage Night: Current Events

There has been a lot of stuff happening in Cavern lately and I would like to take this Heritage Night to talk about such things.

The most obvious thing that has happened is the recent ‘vault wipe’ in which all player information was lost. This is a sad blow for all those affected, especially those with a large amount of history with the game.

This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened and long-time explorers will remember that all account data was lost when the GameTap (2007) MOUla was closed down. Some of the shards have also had ‘vault wipes’ when some reconfiguration was needed.

Cyan learned an important lesson. Cyan had a poor backup plan and never tested their backups (which were corrupt). If they weren’t corrupt, there would still be some loss as Cyan’s latest backups were from a lot earlier in the year.

We can learn something feom Cyan. It’s important to have a good backup system and to make frequent backups. Making sure your backups can be restored is also important. Even if you use your computer very little, things can still go wrong and a backup is better than starting over. If you want to talk more about backups, I will be available after the speech.

Back to the ‘vault wipe’ itself. Fans came up with funny IC explanations to pass the time, including time machines gone wrong and a ‘metaphysical wave‘ sent by a faction of the Bahro War (a fight between Bahro who want us to leave the cavern and those who want to stay). My personal favourite explanation for current events is:

OHB’s arch-nemesis tried to hack the Great Zero into a mind-control device. It backfired and he wiped everyone’s memories, reset the Kis, and reset the ages (somehow) instead.

There is one more separate recent event semi-ignored because of the vault wipe. Before the wipe, Cyan stated that they were working with fans to finally get new content into the game. They originally intended to release this new content at the end of the year. I have heard nothing new on this front recently, but I imagine increased work on the Obduction game and the vault wipe has pushed the project aside a bit. I hope we hear more about this soon.

Before I take questions, the last bit of news is that Cyan has cut a deal with a TV company and a Myst TV show is in the works. You can join the discussion here: http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=27515 and read more here: http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/07/cyan-cuts-deal-with-legendary-to-create-a-tv-series-based-on-myst/

Here is the log for the Q&A part of the event:

(11/16 15:27:07) Chat.log started…
(11/16 15:27:10)  CHAKRA: ty… so this ‘tv show’ is it a series or a mini series or one time epidsode?
(11/16 15:27:36)  HeritageNightGuy: Hmm I don’t know, let me see
(11/16 15:27:47) HeritageNightGuy goes off to Google the answer
(11/16 15:28:12)  Boywhith: It is way too much for I single episode I think.
(11/16 15:28:37)  CHAKRA: Also, curious .. Who is the tv company who picked Cyan up>?
(11/16 15:28:37)  radioflux: depends on the story they want to tell
(11/16 15:28:51)  CHAKRA: depends on money!
(11/16 15:28:53)  Zeke365: Lenderay
(11/16 15:28:56)  radioflux: Legendary
(11/16 15:29:34)  Musica2: Couldn’t the deal be with a production company and they will have to sell it to a TV network?
(11/16 15:29:34)  radioflux: but not the movie branch; the TV branch of Legendary
(11/16 15:29:36)  Zeke365: i kind of have an idea of how it will work it a transamedia tv show
(11/16 15:29:39)  skuavi: first episode early days in dni :)
(11/16 15:29:44)  CHAKRA: excuse me? legendary is the name of the tv production company?
(11/16 15:29:55)  radioflux: yes
(11/16 15:29:59)  Boywhith: I agree CHAKRA. I still wonder if this is a real plan or only a nice thought.
(11/16 15:30:03)  CHAKRA: Ok great! and ty
(11/16 15:30:13)  skuavi: make the new godzila legendary?
(11/16 15:30:29)  HeritageNightGuy: I’m back, I don’t think we know wather it will be mini-serries or full serries or whatever
(11/16 15:30:31)  Boywhith: We all know what hapened to that movie plans… nothing!
(11/16 15:30:38)  Boywhith: *happened
(11/16 15:30:55)  radioflux: yes, so we’ll just have to wait and see
(11/16 15:31:08)  HeritageNightGuy: Accoding to Wikepida Cyan had a deal for a Myst TV show back in 2002 that also ‘fell through’
(11/16 15:31:23)  CHAKRA: @boywhith…. has potential to make it all the way to ‘airing’ or the project being cancelled for unseen reasons
(11/16 15:31:30)  HeritageNightGuy: I wonder how many people would donate for a Myst Movie/TV show kickstarter
(11/16 15:31:31)  Zeke365: So with the valt wipe recently do you think that is a good thing or bad thing?
(11/16 15:31:32)  Boywhith: You see? That is 12 years ago!
(11/16 15:31:59)  CHAKRA: I feel your pain Boywhith LOL
(11/16 15:32:04)  radioflux: par for the course with those movie deals
(11/16 15:32:10)  CHAKRA: I remember it all too well also.
(11/16 15:32:17)  HeritageNightGuy: The vault wipe is a bad thing and it did not help any sever problems either :(
(11/16 15:32:50)  Boywhith: and CAVCON is allarming low… 1.4 now.
(11/16 15:32:59)  HeritageNightGuy: It is indeed
(11/16 15:33:05)  CHAKRA: Well, I hope it comes to fruition and! is a great success, so we can open source this with the abundance of monies the tv show can produce and add new content.
(11/16 15:33:08)  Zeke365: But we have had a lot more explores in though the Cavcon really needs to get up there
(11/16 15:33:13)  radioflux: Personally, I loved having to do the entire game again
(11/16 15:33:20)  HeritageNightGuy: Donating would be a good thing
(11/16 15:33:40)  HeritageNightGuy: But there a couple of more importnat things I might want to donate too
(11/16 15:33:45)  Jet Blast: I do it
(11/16 15:33:45)  Boywhith: yeah in a way it was a good thing to start over again.
(11/16 15:33:52)  CHAKRA: I have been thru the prior ‘resets’ so no big deal redoing the Journey.
(11/16 15:33:55)  HeritageNightGuy: I wish we had donation insentives
(11/16 15:33:55)  skuavi: good evening jet
(11/16 15:33:55)  Zeke365: What the best way to to aproch donating without panicking explorers?
(11/16 15:34:33)  Boywhith: i think Cyan must again do a Kickstarter campaign.
(11/16 15:34:48)  HeritageNightGuy: We need some sort of insentive like OHBs connection imnage
(11/16 15:34:48)  CHAKRA: I would suggest Zeke… sharing the donation instructions on the forums that RAWA gives.
(11/16 15:35:03)  CHAKRA: Just share the link with others Zeke.
(11/16 15:35:04)  Boywhith: and try to collect funds to keep MOULa running for at least 2 years, including…
(11/16 15:35:04)  HeritageNightGuy: brb
(11/16 15:35:17)  Boywhith: The promise of new cotent.
(11/16 15:35:22)  Boywhith: *content.
(11/16 15:35:26)  Zeke365: Ya were almost at 5 years
(11/16 15:36:05)  CHAKRA: There will always be the promise to fulfill dreams.
(11/16 15:36:13)  HeritageNightGuy: Back
(11/16 15:36:20)  CHAKRA: Doesn’t mean they will happen overnight tho…..
(11/16 15:36:28)  CHAKRA: We ALL have been waiting……
(11/16 15:36:37)  CHAKRA: remember…..
(11/16 15:36:44)  HeritageNightGuy: We could ask Cyan if an explorer like OHB cfould run a robot
(11/16 15:36:48)  CHAKRA: the ending has yet to be written.
(11/16 15:37:07)  HeritageNightGuy: Then set up a ‘hal of fame’ hood if you donate over $20 to MOULa you get your name on the hoods imager
(11/16 15:37:07)  Zeke365: i have gone back and forth and weather new content is what uru needs yes some but what really needs is its community
(11/16 15:37:14)  HeritageNightGuy: This is controlled by the roboto
(11/16 15:37:20)  CHAKRA: We have a lot of robots in the cavern now…. just sayin’
(11/16 15:37:31)  Jet Blast: Ok,Igive 10 more yet
(11/16 15:37:35)  HeritageNightGuy: Robots are useufl
(11/16 15:37:39)  Jet Blast: Brb
(11/16 15:37:41)  Zeke365: Would that event cost even more
(11/16 15:37:48)  Boywhith: hehehe… I like a statute for $200 !
(11/16 15:37:55)  CHAKRA: robots can be useful…. and glitchy too
(11/16 15:38:05)  HeritageNightGuy: We can’t do anything that will cost Cyan money
(11/16 15:38:08)  CHAKRA: LOL@boy
(11/16 15:38:24)  HeritageNightGuy: But you could donate to MOULa and get a statue on the gehn shard if the admins where ok with that
(11/16 15:38:46)  HeritageNightGuy: Adding content to MOULa will cost Cyan money
(11/16 15:39:10)  HeritageNightGuy: I think we need to run a PBS style capain!
(11/16 15:39:20)  Boywhith: i am not a fan of those shards… The nice things there…
(11/16 15:39:23)  Zeke365: Last noevmenber we hit 4.9
(11/16 15:39:30)  Boywhith: Must be intergrated into MOULa.
(11/16 15:40:02)  HeritageNightGuy: The game is rather limmited in what we can do with it
(11/16 15:40:06)  CHAKRA: Last Nov. the login numbers were almost double too.
(11/16 15:40:12)  CHAKRA: Numbers have fallen ….
(11/16 15:40:18)  HeritageNightGuy: Interesting
(11/16 15:40:31)  HeritageNightGuy: Well there might be worse next month with holidays :(
(11/16 15:40:33)  Zeke365: Throuh limitaions come creativity
(11/16 15:40:38)  CHAKRA: Which means …. we need to donate double!
(11/16 15:40:56)  Zeke365: i will as soon as I can
(11/16 15:41:02)  CHAKRA: I was here when the cavern closed down due to lack of funding.
(11/16 15:41:09)  CHAKRA: It was terribly sad day.
(11/16 15:41:27)  Musica2: Yes, it was sad
(11/16 15:41:31)  Zeke365: it amazing this community keeps poping up
(11/16 15:41:34)  Boywhith: not to say, a disaster! :(((
(11/16 15:41:49)  CHAKRA: Cate quit and we lost the one person who was in charge of seeking funding.
(11/16 15:42:28)  CHAKRA: The DRC had all returned to the surface or quit.  We basically were left on our own.
(11/16 15:42:39)  Zeke365: i m looking forward to DIRT project as well
(11/16 15:42:56)  CHAKRA: After Ensberg’s daughter died,…. things started falling apart in the cavern.
(11/16 15:43:06)  Zeke365: Expect for a few reseng
(11/16 15:43:09)  HeritageNightGuy: I’m offstage now since I’m now an equal vs (in-carge)
(11/16 15:43:29) From CHAKRA: kool
(11/16 15:43:33)  Musica2: That wasn’t in the script
(11/16 15:44:00)  CHAKRA: This tv thingie that’s ‘in the works’ could be what saves the cavern.
(11/16 15:44:31)  CHAKRA: If it doesn’t suceed…. well, it’s up to the (us) explorers to keep the journey alive.
(11/16 15:44:43)  HeritageNightGuy: Cyan’s for profit work does not mix with it’s private work and even has it’s own bank account
(11/16 15:45:10)  CHAKRA: Cyan worlds you mean?
(11/16 15:45:20)  CHAKRA: which cyan?
(11/16 15:45:31)  HeritageNightGuy: Same company diffrent time in it’s life
(11/16 15:45:44)  CHAKRA: sister company
(11/16 15:46:08) skuavi looks around for a bit
(11/16 15:46:15)  Zeke365: Listen everyone should have gotten a ki mail telling the time of appreaction party which you can show your appreaction there and that will be sent to cyan
(11/16 15:46:17)  CHAKRA: I thought there was going to be a Heritage tour today?
(11/16 15:46:19)  HeritageNightGuy: I still say we need instives to donate(or at lest I do)
(11/16 15:46:33)  CHAKRA: instives?
(11/16 15:46:38)  CHAKRA: what is that?
(11/16 15:46:42)  spatialkay: incentivew
(11/16 15:46:49)  CHAKRA: incentives
(11/16 15:46:49)  spatialkay: incentives
(11/16 15:46:56)  HeritageNightGuy: incentives
(11/16 15:46:57)  skuavi: incentivos
(11/16 15:47:08)  HeritageNightGuy: Like OHBs thing
(11/16 15:47:34)  HeritageNightGuy: Or getting your name in a fan-fic or on an imager somewhere
(11/16 15:47:50)  Boywhith: we need transparancy. Whe we donate now, it is like trowing money in a dark pit.
(11/16 15:48:21)  Zeke365: I do the Cavern Tours on tuseday nights at 22:00ki time and Larry does one saturday at 9:00ki time
(11/16 15:48:48)  HeritageNightGuy: Or something really cool to do that makes people think.. oh wow I want to keep playing that game
(11/16 15:48:52)  CHAKRA: Wish I could attend your Zeke, but too late for me.
(11/16 15:49:04)  HeritageNightGuy: I have the same problem
(11/16 15:49:13)  radioflux: The Saturday tours are great as well
(11/16 15:49:16)  Zeke365: then you go to larry right
(11/16 15:49:25)  HeritageNightGuy: You know I could probally a tour myself but I don’t know what to say
(11/16 15:49:31)  CHAKRA: I did attend Larry’s thought… and had a lot of fun!
(11/16 15:49:57)  HeritageNightGuy: I could do a sort of LP though the ages if that intrests anyone
(11/16 15:50:04)  HeritageNightGuy: *through
(11/16 15:50:06)  skuavi: wb patricio
(11/16 15:50:14)  Zeke365: LP?
(11/16 15:50:23)  Patricio: Hola sku.
(11/16 15:50:24)  radioflux: or CD?
(11/16 15:50:27)  CHAKRA: live presentation?
(11/16 15:50:31)  HeritageNightGuy: Let’s Play/Long Play
(11/16 15:50:37)  CHAKRA: ohhhhhhhh
(11/16 15:50:41)  Boywhith: MP3… lol
(11/16 15:50:43)  skuavi: mp3
(11/16 15:50:46)  Musica2: The Radio Free D’NI guys are broadcasting next Sunady and having a donation time after
(11/16 15:51:01)  Zeke365: that something I condsidered but rejected it maybe a trailer at least
(11/16 15:51:02)  radioflux: Ok, I’m off to donate Right Now
(11/16 15:51:08) CHAKRA dislikes language barriers.
(11/16 15:51:14)  radioflux: see you guys around
(11/16 15:51:17)  Patricio: My pay pal is all set now!
(11/16 15:51:19)  HeritageNightGuy: There is a style of Youtbue video where people commintate over games(called a ‘Let’s Play)
(11/16 15:51:30)  HeritageNightGuy: Se you around radioflux
(11/16 15:51:50)  CHAKRA: Aren’t there 3 ways to donate?
(11/16 15:51:54)  HeritageNightGuy: Annways I could do a tour where I would comminate on things around the ages
(11/16 15:51:58)  Zeke365: I know but I think of this way people might just wait for the lets play then coming on the tours
(11/16 15:52:03)  CHAKRA: If one doesn’t want to pay the paypal fees?
(11/16 15:52:04)  Boywhith: There is alreay a LP MOULa on youtube… 100 movies in total!
(11/16 15:52:21)  Boywhith: *already
(11/16 15:52:24)  HeritageNightGuy: Yes this would be a live commintary by microphone
(11/16 15:52:27)  Zeke365: if you can dontate double do so lets save our little home
(11/16 15:52:39)  Jet Blast: ok, a new donation,is done.bye see you soon
(11/16 15:52:49)  HeritageNightGuy: See you Jet Blast
(11/16 15:53:06)  CHAKRA: wow Jet Blast really IS Jet Blast! hahahahahah
(11/16 15:53:16)  Piri 919: yeah
(11/16 15:53:49)  HeritageNightGuy: Jet Blast sounds like a nicname for Sonic The Headgehog
(11/16 15:54:02)  CHAKRA: HNG…. you in the USA?
(11/16 15:54:29)  skuavi: my nick name is like a pokemon?
(11/16 15:54:32)  CHAKRA: if so would be nice to have a tour in the middle of Larry and Zeke’s tours… for accessibility
(11/16 15:54:50)  HeritageNightGuy: I am Canadian
(11/16 15:54:54)  CHAKRA: Larry’s is early morning
(11/16 15:54:54) Zeke365 dont forget to check out some of the events in the Cavem Events hood
(11/16 15:55:00)  CHAKRA: Zekes is late
(11/16 15:55:02)  spatialkay: honorary yank
(11/16 15:55:10)  CHAKRA: what time zone you in HNG?
(11/16 15:55:25)  Zeke365: sorry not possible we do not have the man power to that
(11/16 15:55:43)  HeritageNightGuy: Easertern Daylight Time(UTC -05:00)
(11/16 15:55:55)  Zeke365: 9:00ki time is 11:00am EST
(11/16 15:56:13)  CHAKRA: right Zeke
(11/16 15:56:43)  HeritageNightGuy: 13 Ki time is 3:00 PM for me
(11/16 15:56:46)  CHAKRA: some folks sleep in on Saturday mornings or is there only day to run errands etc
(11/16 15:56:47)  Boywhith: So 2 hours later than the KI time. Here it is 8 hours.
(11/16 15:57:13)  Zeke365: while back I tried to get a Euprooean community tour together byut it fell threw do to lack of interst
(11/16 15:57:14)  CHAKRA: I am +1  KI time
(11/16 15:57:32)  CHAKRA: bummer Zeke
(11/16 15:57:57)  CHAKRA: you in UK Boy?
(11/16 15:58:12)  Zeke365: its more like this people had interst but none wanted to help or wanted to but did not know how
(11/16 15:58:13)  Boywhith: No, The Netherlands.
(11/16 15:58:35)  CHAKRA: Brrr Boy lol
(11/16 15:58:37)  Zeke365: no offensise to anyone
(11/16 15:58:48)  CHAKRA: no offense take Zeke :)
(11/16 15:59:13)  Zeke365: I hope that explains the situation better
(11/16 15:59:20)  CHAKRA: I have planned events years ago and got a lot of positive feedback.. but then at time of event, very few actually showed.
(11/16 15:59:42)  Boywhith: Brrr? We have a nice climate.
(11/16 15:59:51)  CHAKRA: My ‘Wonderland’ party was my greatest success though.
(11/16 16:00:02)  Musica2: Yesterday I hunted for a Delin to go to, but it’
(11/16 16:00:04)  Zeke365: Avertiscement is your best soruse AGM, fourms, pming people
(11/16 16:00:12)  Musica2: It’s not winter yet
(11/16 16:00:12)  CHAKRA: You just never know when you plan an event…..
(11/16 16:00:40)  CHAKRA: Miranna’s hood has Delin
(11/16 16:01:08)  CHAKRA: yep Zeke… dissemination is key.
(11/16 16:01:20)  CHAKRA: It’s snowing here.
(11/16 16:01:34)  Zeke365: bur I know what that like
(11/16 16:01:44)  Boywhith: We had rain the whole day today, and mild, around 10 degrees.
(11/16 16:01:44)  HeritageNightGuy: I’m in the GTA(Otario, Cananda) and it was snowing this morning :(
(11/16 16:02:06)  Boywhith: I love snow!
(11/16 16:02:12)  CHAKRA: Snow is pretty.  As long as you don’ t   have to go anywhere. ;’ )
(11/16 16:02:24)  Zeke365: snowcones anyone?
(11/16 16:02:31)  CHAKRA: lol
(11/16 16:02:31)  HeritageNightGuy: It’s still cloady so I fear over the air TV reciption won’t be that good and there is a 2-hour special I hav to watch
(11/16 16:02:52)  Myown Evil Twin: i used to like snow, now its just cold and wet
(11/16 16:03:12)  Boywhith: So far we have had a record mild year.
(11/16 16:03:33)  Zeke365: well I m taking off see ya
(11/16 16:03:55)  HeritageNightGuy: Oh my here sounded like he was in watter too me
(11/16 16:04:00)  HeritageNightGuy: *he
(11/16 16:04:01)  CHAKRA: I guess this is as good a time as any…. PPOOOOFF!!!!
(11/16 16:04:11)  HeritageNightGuy: Yes you can leave whenver
(11/16 16:04:11)  CHAKRA (I’m on the surface, be back in a minute):
(11/16 16:04:12)  Zeke365 (I’m on the surface, be back in a minute):
(11/16 16:04:14) …Chat.log stopped.

Happy Halloween!

Hey all, Calum here!

Just dropping by here to wish you all a Happy Halloween down in the Cavern! Watch out for Skeletons!! 0______0

C.O and Cavecon meters

Hello. Tonight, I’m going to talk about ‘The CAVECON and C.O. meters’. Near the end of MOUL(2007), a chart called the ‘C.O. meter’ was devised by RAWA to let people know how likely cancellation would be. This meter [seen here: http://web.archive.org/web/20111203160514/http://www.drcsite.org/images/drcco.jpg], has 5 levels with ‘severe’ at the top and ‘low’ at the bottom. It was called the ‘Cautious Optimism Advisory System’ (or C.O meter for short). The idea of ‘Cautious Optimism’ was that there was a chance of Cyan receiving the funding they needed (optimism). This may not happen so people shouldn’t get too excited.(caution).

So now on to the CAVECON meter. The CAVECON readouts can be found here:http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25172. Now, if you haven’t heard, this game is paid for by fan donations. Cyan refuses to give actual monetary figures. Instead, they invented a 5-level system to measure how well donations are covering expenses on a month-by-month basis. This 5-level system is the CAVECON. Level 5 is the best and level 1 is the worst.

So, to elaborate, CAVECON 3 means expenses are equal to donations; 2 means they are below expenses and 4 means they are above. When donations are at 4, they are cached for slower times. When at level 2, the cache is used to pay for expenses.

Levels 5 and 1 are extreme: 1 means that the cache is empty and the cavern is in danger of closure. 5 means Cyan is ready to add content to the game. We’ve never reached 5 and we can’t reach 5 if Cyan is not willing to add new content. Right now, they’re working on their new game, Obduction, so it’s unlikely we will reach CAVECON 5 even if there is enough funding to do so.

To add clarity, a second digit (after a decimal point) was added. This represents how close donations are to reaching the goal (which for each month is CAVECON 3). So .3 means 30% funded to the 3.0 goal, 0.1 means 10%, etc. When CAVECON 4 is reached, the decimal represents how much extra money is in the cache. In this case, .3 means funding is 130% and .1 means funding is 110%.

So, hopefully, you now have an understanding of the CAVECON. The current ratings can be found here: URL If not, I will try to answer any questions you might have. I will put up a Q&A section at https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/. But first, if you would like to donate to MOULa, you do so at: http://mystonline.com/en/donate/

FAQ

Q: How much should we donate?

A: You should donate what you can.

Q: Why won’t Cyan give actual dollar/cents figures?

A: They don’t want people to feel obligated to donate.

Q: Does all of my donation goes towards MOULa?

A: It does. They have a separate bank account specifically for MOULa.

Q: Do large yearly sums work better than monthly?

A: I believe monthly is preferred since Cyan is billed for the server monthly. So a big yearly sum only helps them out for a few months.

Q: What if I can’t donate?

A: Then the game is still free for you. Maybe you can find something else useful to do around cavern.

Q: Are donations tax-deductible?

A: No, sorry they are not.

Q: How can I donate and where do I do so?

A: Info and donations can be found here: http://mystonline.com/en/donate/

Lighting The Lake

Shorah, all! Today, I’m going to be talking about ‘Lighting the Lake’. Before we begin, is everyone familiar with the pellet-baking machine in Er’cana?

If not, let me give some background. There is an oven in one of the ages that allows the user to bake a sausage-shaped log which we call a ‘pellet’. When a pellet is dropped into a pool of water, it will produce some light. How much light you get depends on what settings you use to bake the pellet. You can either drop the pellet into a Borah cave or a pool of water in A’gura.

In 2007, it was discovered that ‘well baked’ pellets dropped in the Agura pool of water actually affected the lake and this would eventually make the lake brighter. This is due to luminescent algae in the water, which, as far as I know, has died since the fall of D’ni.

So a project was started to light the lake to its maximum brightness, since a brighter lake would also effect the brightness of the cavern. At that time, someone at the DRC installed a funny machine at the docs. It’s supposed to measure the lake light, but it’s broken somehow and so was later removed.

I will take questions at this time, and then Stone5 will adjust the lake brightness leavals so you can see how bright and dark they go. This can only be done in the hood. Then we can go to the city to see the lake brightness measuring device.

The Q&A is bellow:

(07/26 15:06:02)  Magic Ro': TOC has a working Lake Light Meter
(07/26 15:06:09)  Jamie Marchant: That’s cool :)
(07/26 15:06:16)  Malim Praedari: Where will the chatlog b published
(07/26 15:06:18)  Jamie Marchant: I haven’t been on TOC for a while
(07/26 15:06:22)  Malim Praedari: I will have to leave soon
(07/26 15:06:30)  Magic Ro': It’s in COD
(07/26 15:06:42)  Jamie Marchant: Yes which reminds me all the Q&A will be in the chatlog
(07/26 15:06:59)  Jamie Marchant: The thing I just read to you will be on the Heritage Night blog latter
(07/26 15:07:05)  Malim Praedari: What is cod?
(07/26 15:07:27)  radioflux: City of Dimensions
(07/26 15:07:31)  Magic Ro': City of D…. forgot how to spell it
(07/26 15:07:34)  Magic Ro': TY
(07/26 15:07:41)  Jamie Marchant: I belive COD is the city of demistionts, an altertive city in the The Open Cave shard
(07/26 15:07:43)  Malim Praedari: Ok, but what is the link
(07/26 15:08:07)  Jamie Marchant: I belive if you have an account on The Open Cave you can get there for free
(07/26 15:08:08)  Magic Ro': use   /cod
(07/26 15:08:12)  Magic Ro': or the Nexus
(07/26 15:08:24)  radioflux: http://www.the-open-cave.net ???
(07/26 15:08:31)  Magic Ro': yes
(07/26 15:08:38)  Malim Praedari: No i thik we are misunderstanding
(07/26 15:08:43)  Zeke365: So does this machine of brightnees effect the cavcon any way?
(07/26 15:08:46)  Malim Praedari: what is the link to the chat log
(07/26 15:08:55)  radioflux: heh
(07/26 15:08:55)  Jamie Marchant: No it only measures it.
(07/26 15:09:27)  Zeke365: What was it mesuring for other than brightness?
(07/26 15:09:30)  Jamie Marchant: by right back
(07/26 15:09:53)  Magic Ro': The very same lake machine can be see at the Dock  with Magic Treasure
(07/26 15:10:08)  Mcbeam: hello?
(07/26 15:10:15)  Zeke365: Hello
(07/26 15:10:15)  Malim Praedari: Hello mcbeam
(07/26 15:10:23)  Jamie Marchant: Sorry about that my internal client got messed up
(07/26 15:10:24) Magic Ro’ says okay
(07/26 15:10:28)  Jamie Marchant: Ok any other questionts?
(07/26 15:10:28)  Mcbeam: where for art ?
(07/26 15:10:39)  Jamie Marchant: where for art?
(07/26 15:10:48)  Magic Ro': where for art thou
(07/26 15:10:49)  Mcbeam: everybody?
(07/26 15:11:01)  Jamie Marchant: Where upstairs
(07/26 15:11:03)  Stone: Jamy can correct mebut i thin you can find mst of the chat logs and info here….    https://heritagenight.wordpress.com
(07/26 15:11:08)  Zeke365: Was there another purpose for the machine other than brightness of the pellets?
(07/26 15:11:15)  Stone: Jamie     sorry^
(07/26 15:11:16)  Malim Praedari: ok thank you
(07/26 15:11:23)  Mcbeam: oops sorry
(07/26 15:11:43)  Jamie Marchant: The machine by the docs?
(07/26 15:11:49)  Magic Ro': doesn’t it supply air to the divers?
(07/26 15:11:55)  Zeke365: Yes and why it broke?
(07/26 15:12:03)  Jamie Marchant: Maybe, hold on a moment
(07/26 15:12:28)  Jamie Marchant: The drc site is still down :(
(07/26 15:13:04)  Jamie Marchant: They had a really good thread on the matter but I did not have accass to it when writing my script
(07/26 15:13:30)  Jamie Marchant: Also it’s a lot harder to find good info on Myst stuff with MystLore down :(
(07/26 15:13:38)  Jamie Marchant: Any other questionts
(07/26 15:13:39)  Stone: is it in the waybackmachine
(07/26 15:13:40)  Malim Praedari: what was the intention of it’s function if it did work, did it have lights and a meter to indicate brightnes?
(07/26 15:13:51)  Jamie Marchant: Oh yeah good thinking Stone
(07/26 15:13:54)  Malim Praedari: some sort of indication
(07/26 15:14:04)  Jamie Marchant: I forgot about that when doing my script :(
(07/26 15:14:20)  Magic Ro': I only see 1s and 0s on the working machine.
(07/26 15:14:34)  Jamie Marchant: That’s kind of the reason I diden’t want to do 07 stuff as there is a lot of reasearch todo since I was never there

I didn’t think of taking a screen shot of the brighter lake but here is the thing by the lake:

Here is a pic.