The Pulp (07-09-11)

The Season of the Fire King begins.  As abruptly as they rose up, the fierce winds die down to an eerie and stifling stillness.  Clouds become a memory.  The sky is as iron in a fire, weighing heavily on everything beneath it, growing hotter by the moment until the glowing red of sunset — slowly cooling to blackness and the hammered sparks of stars.   Nocturnal creatures scrabble to scratch out their livings in the shortened night.  Distant roars ring in the canyons.  Those out in the daylight try to pace themselves, taking their rest whenever they can in patches of shade as precious as if paved in Coal.  And yet there are still so many things to do — and many more scavengers arriving by the day, seeking shelter, salvage, trade, and a new beginning.  More competition.  More opportunities.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS:

Poised atop the crags of her North Yard cave, Diamanda Gustafson shouldered her gramophone backpack and played a set of early music, folk, and metal last Wednesday.

A host of Wastelanders gathered on Saturday for the slightly-belated June Community Meeting, where Neo addressed the latest happenings in the Estate, Game, and RP.

This half-hour of pleasantly collaborative community discussion then segued into the vicious manslaughtering mayhem of War Zone!  Team One’s captain, Aposiopesis Fullstop, and Team Two’s captain, KittyKat Borkotron, saw their teams through one win apiece, making the third round a proper tiebreaker for the first time in many months.  Both teams struggled mightily through the steals, the knockouts, the strange jags of lag, and the parcels that wouldn’t let the flag or the flagbearer in.  Like the others, it was a close match — but none knew how close until Neo made the announcement:  Team Two won by one second.

The contents of the Victory Platter and Fail Plate were distributed, and after a couple hours’ break, DJ Aposiopesis took to the teetering billboard of The Sledgepile once again to play an assortment of music.

ESTATE NEWS:

June’s Wastelands Community Meeting took place at the Arena on July 2nd — the mutant invasion of Gathering of the Tribes having bumped it from its usual last-Saturday-of-the-month position.  As usual, Neo and the Devs covered the three major aspects of The Wastelands:

Estate

• The new Tier Meters are almost finished, and should be unveiled within a week or two.
• Parcel owners will be able to designate one partner — not necessarily the SL-married type of partner – who will also be able to check on the payment status of the parcel.
• Occupancy is high, and has been holding – and, says Neo, “Just a little bit more and I will plan that costal sim.“
• Land Tokens were confirmed to be broken since the Food Trader was renovated.

Game

• Players were reminded of the Don’t Be A Douchebag rule:  friendly trash-talk is one thing; treating people like crap is not.  As Neo says, “People who are dicks get suspended and banned.”
• Don’t take a loss too seriously, either. 
• Game development has been minimal as the Tier Meters have been the main focus this month.
• Neo will investigate the reports of very low salvage drop rates in The Wastelands sim.
• Sandusky confirmed that Clobberin’ Sticks do still drop.
• Neo confirmed that the Juvenile Cinder Beetles are hard to hit because of their size – but they are not bugged or invincible.  Players advised to use a longer weapon, or to crouch.
• New content will be the biggest priority when game development begins (presumably meaning items and weapons, as opposed to the jump limiter, refining script efficiency, etc.)
• Everyone still really wants the Bow.

Roleplay

• Players encouraged to not be total dickbags to each other in RP, either.  Sez Neo, “If you are going to RP being a mean person, at least be friends with the people you’re RPing with. Don’t be an OOCLY dick and RP being a dick. You’re just 100% dick then.”
• No gestures while roleplaying — it’s not an in-character action to play a quote from a movie, TV show, etc.  Especially no gesture-spamming.
• The idea was given for a glossary of in-character slang.

RP NAMEDROPS: Tensions are mounting between the Marauders, who’ve laid some claim to the barrens of Ashvasta, and the Pirates, who’ve migrated from their base in the Fissure to a derelict boat in Malady Bog.

Significant changes seem to be afoot within the Black Market – though their secretive natures make these rumors little more than a hoarse whisper on the winds.

A few new Reaver recruits have been seen prowling over the rocks of North Yard.

The Digger, Sandusky Kayvon, has put up some crude but sturdy stalls around the old Sand Schooner in Cormac, preparing for a weekly market to be known as  the Barrelhead Bazaar. Traders will be welcome to swap their goods, grab a bite to eat, listen to music, and tell old tales.  Auctions for valued scrap will take place up in the sandship itself.  And if any trade or bidding war goes sour, folks will have to fistfight it out in the barbed-wire confines of the Knuckleheads’ Cage.

Meanwhile, the commotion of building must have startled that old abandoned Sandworm enough to make him break his bonds.  That or someone or something set him free.  The rope that bound him near the schooner looked cut…by worm tusk or blade I do not know.  He most likely headed back out into the Nowhere – but even though he’d been tamed enough for use as a beast of burden, it’s unlikely he’d refrain from eating anyone he meets on the way.