Below is a short summary of the latest Community Meeting, followed by its chat logs – which have been gently edited for formatting, to put questions and answers in bold for easy skimming, and to omit greetings and farewells and other such asides. Meetings are hosted by Estate owner NeoBokrug Elytis at 2:00 pm on the last Saturday of every month at The Potato Farm in The Wastelands, and the discussion is typically divided into three main topics: Estate, Game, and Roleplay & Events. Everyone is welcome to attend!
LAND:
➳ Occupancy has held mostly stable since last month after a small uptick followed by a small dip.
➳ The potential major news Neo teased at the last meeting continues to be stuck in a holding pattern. Stay tuned!
➳ The new RP wing is still being worked on, though a slightly lower priority than game work at the moment.
➳ Having trouble paying tier due to the pandemic? Let Neo know: he’ll be as lenient as possible.
➳ However, if your land is very overdue, and if you have not replied to any of Neo’s IMs, he will still have to reclaim it.
GAME:
➳ Game Update! The new Ruined Papers Recipe System is now in play! Find a ruined paper? Take it to Henry, the new NPC in the Sand Seas, for a random recipe hint.
➳ The rarity of the crate a paper is found in reflects the quality of the paper, which reflects the clarity of the hint you’ll receive on redemption.
➳ The same recipe can be hinted-at in multiple ways; no two papers are likely to yield the exact same hint, revealed and obscured in the exact same ways.
➳ The Wiki and Game Tutorial will be updated soon to cover this new system.
➳ Halloween isn’t too far away! Neo will soon start work on this year’s quest.
ROLEPLAY & EVENTS:
➳ Neo is working on a template to allow basic RP character information to be posted on the Wiki.
➳ Thank you to everyone who participated in or attended the many events of the Rondyvoo!
➳ The Post-Apoc Sock Hop, featuring Oldies music and a costume contest, will happen at The Arena on a Saturday in September!
➳ A lazy Sunday marathon of Clone High may happen on an upcoming weekend.
➳ The next Barrelhead Bazaar will take place on Saturday, September 5 at 11am.
➳ Mutant Drum Circles still take place every Monday at 6pm, and the next RP edition will take place on Monday the 7th.
➳ Booze & Blather casual RP hangouts happen every Thursday at 6pm.
Halloween Planning:
➳ Early brainstorming is underway for Halloween celebrations!
➳ There may be a trick-or-treating event to let Wastelanders and/or visitors go from hovel to hovel and get one-per-person treats.
➳ Akiko Thursday will be setting up a haunted house for the season.
➳ The Long Night, with the special darkened Windlight settings and the marauding by the Black Rider, is still slated to take place on Halloween itself.
➳ Trigger Treat, an all-day Halloween party, will take place either on Halloween or the Saturday before – possibly to be decided by a Discord poll.
➳ Want to host an event? Let Neo know the event details by Wednesday night and he’ll add it to the announcements!
I. THE ESTATE
NeoBokrug Elytis: IT’S… TIME.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Beezle (beezle.warburton): muh first meeting since being an actual resident XD
NeoBokrug Elytis: As per the usual, we’ll talk about the three main aspects of the estate: land, game, RP & events. With time for questions between.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha you don’t need to be a resident to attend these.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): no, but I haven’t since I have been :P
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’ll try to stay on topic, but I am pretty tired in general. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Occupancy has pretty much stayed the same. We had a small bump in occupancy mid-month, but then a small tip just a day or two ago. RL is taking it’s toll I think, as some folks lose jobs.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Honestly not much to report as far as estate and land go. We’re still in a holding pattern for that secret project, if that ever materializes.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Gah. Hopefully it does, whatever it is.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: If just because I don’t want to die of curious.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): PLANTABLE COFFEEEEEE
Beezle (beezle.warburton): I WANTS IT
Beezle (beezle.warburton): :P
NeoBokrug Elytis: Ever since covid started I have been quite a bit more lenient about people being late with tier. But if you just drop off the grid I HAVE to assume the worst. As long as you can shoot me an email to let me know you’re still kicking, I can hold of my demon possessed knee cap collection jar.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’m fine with waiting on tier as long as I know what’s going on. But if I don’t know what’s going on I can wait only a little bit longer than usual. ANd even then my little bit longer is actually a lot longer — because I hate to reclaim land. :C
Aposiopesis Fullstop: What’s the kneecap-to-scrit conversion rate like nowadays, anyway?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any questions about estate stuff, other than how many kneecaps I collect?
BlackWidow Sinister: do parcels need to be adjacent to have the prims all count together?
NeoBokrug Elytis: No. They must only be in the same region.
BlackWidow Sinister: OK
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any other questions?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Can’t think of any at the moment! Can’t think of much in general, mind you.
Aposiopesis Fullstop drinks more coffee.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Moving on to game stuff.
II. THE GAME
NeoBokrug Elytis: Earlier this month we released the “Ruined Papers Recipe System”, which I don’t really have a good name for.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Much of what it was about was documented in a long notecard, and if you don’t have that NC but want a copy now, let me know.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): needs one!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Basically, it’s been forever in the making. Trying to balance the whole “how to learn recipes” and “keep them all secret” issue.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I don’t think it’ll make everyone happy, but I do think it’s a fair middle-ground.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): especially with the aeg “how many ingredients?” ones :P
NeoBokrug Elytis: As mentioned in the NC, Sandusky made the assets forever ago when we were trying to figure out the idea of how to make something work, but not be lame.
Akiko Thursday: I’m stoked about it. I always thought riddle-y clues would be helpful and fun. Thanks for that, y’all.
NeoBokrug Elytis: With experiences, and some new LSL calls I had more options when we had last talked about it at last community meeting. Sandusky and I hashed out some ideas over the course of a few days, and we got to work.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Now, what’s not documented in that notecard, is the fact I had to reverse engineer my whole recipe system. I do not keep a master recipe list, like anywhere.
NeoBokrug Elytis: It’s all values stored in the other parts of the game, which aren’t… easily accessible. Especially since A hunk of rubber may just be some other actual name like 9393RU.
BlackWidow Sinister: You have one now though :)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Is there a reason you didn’t do that? It seems… kinda fundamental.
Akiko Thursday: It got me one recipe I’ve been struggling with forever. Made the more frustrating that I know items close to it in design and function. Immediately felt dumb when I finally got it, thanks to the note scrap.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Technically I do have one now. But generating the master list, was as much if not more work than putting the actual system together.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Hhaha good! I’m glad it’s useful.
BlackWidow Sinister: We need a copy of that list!!!
NeoBokrug Elytis: And I made them BV one to just let market forces decide the price.
NeoBokrug Elytis: So the papers aren’t crazy common, and even if there’s a flood in the market of them, they are still always useful to someone.
Akiko Thursday: It’s a well-thought-out item – or, set of items
NeoBokrug Elytis: Since the recipe and the components are randomly given — the more you know the less useful it is to you. But if you’re trying to grind for a hint at Fire King Fang, you’ll probably want as many tries as you can get.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Inversely, if you’re new every scrap of paper will be valuable to you.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And it also leaves you the option to just brute force try recipes.
NeoBokrug Elytis: It’s not a perfect system by any means, but given how our game works, and what the players want, I think it’s the best system for sharing this information.
BlackWidow Sinister: I have found that certain crates only give certain kinds of papers. Is that true or can any crate give one of the three kinds of papers?
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): are all of the papers unique?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Right now I have to make about a half dozen wiki article detailing the system, and update the game tutorial.
NeoBokrug Elytis scrolls back
NeoBokrug Elytis: I did not create a master list because it used to be easily search-able in the external database. Now that crafting is fully in SL without an external database, I could only pull so much info out of that.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And since the KVP has limited ways to access it, I had to search over 6500 different KVP entries to see if : 1) it was a recipe, and 2) decode all that info
NeoBokrug Elytis: The way the papers spawn is different from normal spawn, even though it’s integrated into the crates. Crate type determines paper type.
BlackWidow Sinister: Ok that’s what I have observed
NeoBokrug Elytis: All papers are unique in that, they allow you a chance to use the system. Think of it like, a token.
NeoBokrug Elytis: When you take them to Henry, he does all the heavy lifting in terms of picking a recipe, it’s components, and puzzles.
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): Can two people get papers that have identical information?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Technically yes, but the odds of that are super ultra crazy slim.
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): thanks for explaining that
NeoBokrug Elytis: Since the puzzle factor really throws a wrench into that.
NeoBokrug Elytis: There’s so much random in the system, that they’re all almost guaranteed to be unique.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: But two papers might have the same readable clue and the same two obscured ones, even if they’re both obscured in slightly different ways.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yup.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: (Not that the papers really “have” anything, ultimately – they’re just things that activate Henry.)
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): so two players can get hints about the same recipe
NeoBokrug Elytis: Just like two papers may have the same recipe, but reveal different clues, and puzzle others.
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): ^^^
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): ty again
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yes, and there’s something like 150+ recipes IIRC
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Now that you have a human-readable master list of existing recipes, is that going to make it any easier for you to implement new crafting recipes? Or will it be harder, because now you’ll have to make a new item *and* update the recipe system?
BlackWidow Sinister: I got two clues in a row about an item, the same item. They named what it was and how to craft it, and each clue was different. A new player would have instantly gotten the recipe from those two clues.
NeoBokrug Elytis: It’s the same I think.
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): that’s a good thing because although players like to keep the papers as collectibles, hints for those recipes are still circulating
NeoBokrug Elytis: I don’t think this will stop people from sharing or selling recipe lists. I do hope it discourages it though, and now that you guys and gals have a legit method to get the info, if someone shares anything it’ll send you into a murderous rage.
Akiko Thursday: It’s a good system. It creates a fun mechanic of riddles that many players *raises hand* will find more satisfying than staring at the wiki picture of an object and tossing stuff into the masheen for. It will still be difficult, though, so it keeps recipes secret enough to be worth the effort of learning and guarding.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): I share nothing but hints!
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): it has upped trading too
BlackWidow Sinister: I thought we all were in a continuous murderous rage …..
NeoBokrug Elytis: Destroy him, my robots.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): typically that’s more a hunger thing :P
BlackWidow Sinister: lol
Rax Stooge: goblin!
Akiko Thursday: E.g. I RP bartered for a hint about one of the most complicated recipes I”ve learned so far a couple years ago. The hint was about the last item I needed for the recipe, and it stumped me FOREVER, because, in four years of playing, it was an item I had never come across, either for sale or scavenging
Akiko Thursday: So, that was a rough one
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think that, given enough time things will be smoothed out as papers become more available. I hope to find alternative uses for paper as well.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): oooo
Aposiopesis Fullstop: WL: Papier-Mache.
Beezle (beezle.warburton): I have a privy that could use em!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: For making a papier-machete.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Oh, and who doesn’t “get” who Henry is? ;)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Okay cool. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any other questions about any of that?
BlackWidow Sinister: Henry Looks Like Mark Twain
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I’m still trying to smooth some bumps out in it, lorewise, for myself, but that’s incidental.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The papers system was something that took a lore more thought than actual hours coding. Sometimes that’s the rub.
Wasteland Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Henry Bemis?
NeoBokrug Elytis: And things in general are slowing down, though not intentionally. The pandemic is not really helping at all. My short term list of things to do for the estate and game are: Wiki articles, update the tutorial, work on the RP wing and new landing point.
Akiko Thursday: He’s got those nice round glasses, Drifter
NeoBokrug Elytis: Plus trying to exist IRL. Stupid addiction to food and shelter.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Burnt Oak rebuild and quest are after the RP wing, I take it?
BlackWidow Sinister: The Tutorial has at least one error in it. Was helping someone with it and noticed that but I don’t remember what it is. Something that has been removed or changed.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The Halloween quest is probably going to derail everything I do.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oooooh. This is very acceptable. :D
Verity Goodnight: mmm food
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have been trying to think of something fun, but not 2018 amounts of halloween quest work.
Akiko Thursday: Halloween in SL is gonna take on a new importance this year, that’s for sure
NeoBokrug Elytis: I wonder if people have enough spare scrap to hand out treats to others who’d “Trick or Treat”. I think that’d be a swell event.
Akiko Thursday: That would be really cool
BlackWidow Sinister: I sure do :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Hey little ghoul, are you dressed as a… human? You get hunk of rubber!
Verity Goodnight: I have SO much scrap because I don’t do anything with it
Akiko Thursday: I’m gonna do a full haunted house on my parcel again this year, after skipping one. Storytelling contest maybe. Trick or treating would be so fun.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha, invite Flatlanders to the neighborhood, share some scrap as they wander around, encourage them to stick around to make things with what they’ve gathered…
Verity Goodnight: and then they stay and have land and joiinnnn us
NeoBokrug Elytis: Well it’s something we ought to start thinking about for sure, as I assume that would take a lot of organization. I could make a simple script that gives some random to someone once, and that’s it.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Then we could have a little map of participants or what-not
Nadie (nadie.streeter): “What a cute costume! Here kid, have a knife.”
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha!
NeoBokrug Elytis: haha
BlackWidow Sinister: :)
BlackWidow Sinister: Or a gun
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think I’ll add that to my to-do list. Whether or not landowners use it, we’ll decide later.
Verity Goodnight: Like the thing at gacha shack that dishes out gacha items randomly to people on the sim, but less random
BlackWidow Sinister: should have the feature where you can only get one item. no more if you already got one.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Before we get into the event things more, can I ask a sorta RP and Wiki-update-related question?
NeoBokrug Elytis: That is what I said BW
NeoBokrug Elytis: Sure,
BlackWidow Sinister: reads back OK
Aposiopesis Fullstop: You’d said something a few months ago about putting up a template to put RP characters on the Wiki. Is that still being worked on? Does it need something?
NeoBokrug Elytis: I could still do that, RL has just been… busy.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Well, yeah.
NeoBokrug Elytis: When I do the wiki update stuff I’ll throw the official thing up there, make categories and other such nonsense.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Sounds good!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any other questions about game stuff?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hmm. It’s *sorta* game related…
Aposiopesis Fullstop points at the Arena walls.
BlackWidow Sinister: I thought it would be fun to have Tumbleweeds on the ground in the Sand Seas. Like in Burnt Oak
BlackWidow Sinister: and nods to Apo I see that too
Aposiopesis Fullstop: They’re all jabby-outy all of a sudden. Is there a reason for that?
NeoBokrug Elytis: An improvement made by Sandusky for his event, that I didn’t return, because I like ’em.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Aha!
Verity Goodnight: bit like the brutalist car park near where I live :D
Akiko Thursday: Yesssss
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I saw it last week and was REALLY felt like I was having a Barenstein/Barenstain moment.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Okay, open floor for RP and Events discussion! Halloween is coming up soon.
III. THE ROLEPLAY
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Thank you to everyone who participated in the Rondyvoo last Saturday! I hope you all had a good time.
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): (( applause!! ))
RMarie Beedit (rmarie.beedit): great job Apo
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Thanks, RMarie!
Beezle (beezle.warburton): yayyyyyyy!!!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: It’s a small event, but sometime in mid-September, I’m probably gonna throw another Post-Apoc Sock Hop here at the Arena. Nothing too special, just decorating, costume contest, and playing a crapasston of Oldies (nothing from after… what was my cutoff, 1965?)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: But yeah, it’s not too early to start planning for Halloween stuff! So if you’d like to emit music for that, lemme know! And, uh… would people prefer that to happen on the Saturday *before* Halloween proper, or is Halloween itself better so the Long Night thing isn’t sorta interrupted, or…
BlackWidow Sinister: Well there’s gonna be no RL Trick or Treating I think.
Kyo (kyo.voxel): exactly
Kyo (kyo.voxel): I think having it on Halloween proper would be fine
NeoBokrug Elytis: Or the best trick ever.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I am going to hell for that one.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: …Well, yes. That’s not really the question here. It’s whether the all-day music festival thing would get in the way of the non-music WL traditions of The Long Night.
Kyo (kyo.voxel): hm, good point
Nadie (nadie.streeter): Would the Headless one come dance with us?
Kyo (kyo.voxel): Could they be incorporated into the event and scheduled around?
NeoBokrug Elytis: What about Day of the Dead celebration?
Akiko Thursday: I’ll have the Dia de Muertos altar again this year. Again, after a one year absence
Nadie (nadie.streeter): Is that the one where we assault ghouls with cans of spraypaint?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Not really, Kyo. Usually, the Black Rider makes multiple trips throughout Halloween day itself, so people have lots of opportunities to get their shit wrecked and be rewarded in candy.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: And the tweaked sky settings for the day are a great opportunity to go take some cool snapshots.
Kyo (kyo.voxel): sounds to me like the saturday before would make more sense then
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I’m starting to think so, too.
BlackWidow Sinister: That’s the 24th
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I am all for spreading Halloween things out as long as possible. :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: We could make a poll on discord.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh? I’ll look into how to do that.
Akiko Thursday: Month long festival, let’s go
Verity Goodnight: Yessssssss
Kyo (kyo.voxel): I would be down with that
Verity Goodnight: All Halloween All the Time
Kyo (kyo.voxel): call it the Long Long Long Night :D
Kyo (kyo.voxel): or just call it 2020.
Akiko Thursday: I vote for Verity’s idea: All Halloween All the Time
Kyo (kyo.voxel): I’m probably going to hell for that joke.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The Wastelands is sort of like that already. But we gotta have one EXTRA special Halloween day
Wasteland Drifter (wastelanddrifter): All Hallows All Times
NeoBokrug Elytis: You can ride the short bus with me Kyo
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Other RP-and-events-wise… Booze & Blather still happens every Thursday at 6pm SLT! And, on Irk’s behalf, Mutant Drum Circles go down every Monday at 6, and the first Monday of the month is in-character!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Next Satruday is Barrlhead
NeoBokrug Elytis: +spelling -typos
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I’m going to try to see if I can figure out how to incorporate a calendar thing into the Press.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh, uh, and I might randomly show a marathon of something at Burnt Oak on an upcoming Sunday.
Kyo (kyo.voxel): oooh
Kyo (kyo.voxel): Max Headroom, maybe?
Kyo (kyo.voxel): :D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh, i’ve meant to do that one, too.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Okey Dokey! I am going to go try to host War Zone in The Great Fissure. Hopefully I do not need to restart it. :)
Kyo (kyo.voxel): I know we had talked about it before
Aposiopesis Fullstop: But mostly I was thinking that it’s back-to-school time, I want to rewatch Clone High, and so can you. :V
NeoBokrug Elytis: Thank you for coming everyone!