Community Meeting: February 4, 2022

➳ WL16B , The Wastelands’ 16th Birthday celebration, took place in January – and was an intense, three-day celebration!  Thanks to everyone who attended, hosted, or otherwise kept The Wastelands going for another year.
➳ In spare time, Neo has made improvements to the Burnt-Oak Drive-In streaming setup, moving it onto more modern software, improving image quality, and trying to eliminate choppiness, and and audio dropoffs at clip changes.
➳ Interested in hosting your own DJ events?  Apo is working on a notecard that will explain how to get started.
➳ The strange Snicker called “Fren” is up to questionable horticulture at his altar in The Great Fissure.
➳ Irk intends to bring back occasional in-character Mutant Drum Circles again.
➳ Fight Night is still only going to be an occasional event, and Neo has not committed to any fixed schedule for when he’ll attempt to host.
➳ Reminder: The roleplay character template has been added to the Wiki – add yours today!  Or review it to see who’s who and get some ideas for interactions.

Weekly Event Summary:

(All Times SLT)

Sundays:

– Storytime with Wasteland Drifter – 2pm
– Gomi’s Garbo Cinematic Expulsion – 5pm

Mondays:

– Mutant Drum Circle – 6pm

Tuesdays:

– Film Night with Wasteland Drifter – 5pm

Wednesdays:

– HOSTILE BROADCAST – 7pm

Thursdays:

– Unstructured Playtime w/ Dia – 5pm
– Booze & Blather [RP Event] – 6pm

Saturdays:

– Sandling’s Evening Madness – 1pm
– Apo’s Audio Atrocities – 5pm

First Saturday: Community Meeting – 2pm

Second Saturday: Barrelhead Bazaar [RP Event] – 11am

Third Saturday: Wasted Raiders’ Raid – Noon

Want to host an event?  Let Neo know the event details by Wednesday night and he’ll add it to the weekly group announcements, Discord announcement, and Plurk feed!

If you want to keep in touch with other Wastelanders when you can’t be inworld, our Discord server is now public! The Unbridled Rage greeter bot can give a link.

I. THE ESTATE

 NeoBokrug Elytis: IT’S… TIME.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Sandling Honey: \o/
NeoBokrug Elytis: As per the usual I will talk about the three main aspects of the estate (estate/land, game, RP/events) with time for questions between each category.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Starting with estate news — Last month we celebrated our 16th birthday. Which was both epic and awesome. We beat our old record for most avatars on a region — which was 85, and it is now 91!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: WAHOO!
Sketchkat Blackflag: :D nice
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): That’s amazing
NeoBokrug Elytis: I don’t know about you all but I had a blast. I wasn’t as tired as previous years. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to celebrate the festivities, and everyone who hosted somethin’!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): I didn’t get to play much that weekend but what I saw was super good
Sketchkat Blackflag: ^ this
Sandling Honey: :D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: WL_B is always its own weird time pocket.
NeoBokrug Elytis: January is increasingly becoming the “recover from Giftmas month.
Mutsy Kaligawa: back, feeling a tad better now I’ve had some rum
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): rummmm
NeoBokrug Elytis: Which is why our celebrations are kind of hard to wrangle. But I think everyone who hosted events were super flexible, and I appreciate that. :)
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): backistan! (with apologies to apo but i’m so stealing that!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha!
Mutsy Kaligawa: I hope to host something next year, maybe~ *shys away a little*
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
NeoBokrug Elytis: If you have questions or need help, just ask anyone!
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have altered some parcels in Fort Stygian on the south end, and I am probably going to create two more small parcels. They seem a lot more popular than I initially gave them credit for.
Sketchkat Blackflag: aww yiss x3
Sandling Honey: I wish I was a bit more alive around the time Giu’s gameshow was up and running – ‘s why I knew I couldn’t be part of the panel
Mutsy Kaligawa: it was a blast, and glad I could make a super duper poster for it, even Apo’s poster was super weird too, ad we like weird :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: I am going to see what I can do about adding a couple in The Wastelands and The Junkyard.
Sandling Honey: But glad I could still be there nevertheless
Mutsy Kaligawa: oooh ok, thanks Neo :)
Sandling Honey: Perhaps next time :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: It’s a bit of work to make sure I do not explode a region when I make changes like that. So I am extra OCD about the whole … process. Which makes it glacially slow.
Mutsy Kaligawa: oh? :o
Sketchkat Blackflag: s’fair, leaving enough room for crate running areas must be somewhat of a priority
NeoBokrug Elytis: Occupancy is pretty much the same. January overall is the worst month, because folks are recovering from RL giftmas.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: And thanks for your own set for it, Sandling! Great stuff as ever.
Sandling Honey: Premium Weirds
NeoBokrug Elytis: So for it to be the same, and stable, is particularly good.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha, yesss.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Right now I personally am in the middle of “Cedar Fever Hell”, so not all cylinders are firing. It’s manageable, but it does slow me down.
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): you’re allowed :-)
NeoBokrug Elytis: On the topic of slowing down, I have chosen to take a break from solution provider work, in order to free up more time. I have found most of my last years attempts were spent on chasing work, than actual work.
NeoBokrug Elytis: So I already have free time because of it, which I’ll explain what I’ve been up to in the Events section.
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Oooo
Mutsy Kaligawa: ooh, sorry to hear that Neo… I have a bit of that sort of thing from time to time, due to other reasons uwu
NeoBokrug Elytis: I do want to revamp the landing page of the website here soon.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Probably in the coming weeks. I did not have time for it during last month because of WL16B and everything else going on (like a broken car for month)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Aside from that, are there any questions about Land and estate things?
Mutsy Kaligawa: ugh, a broken car? :(
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Inworld land hub and Northgate still getting poked at as time allows?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yup. Website first, then full tilt efforts on Northgate.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Solid.
Aposiopesis Fullstop tilts.
Mutsy Kaligawa nods… let me know if you need anything webby from me
NeoBokrug Elytis: Perhaps you can review my amature efforts at html/css. Haha
NeoBokrug Elytis: Moving on to game stuff!

II. THE GAME

 NeoBokrug Elytis: Apparently LL fixed the attachment memory issue. I have not personally tested yet, but when I do, and if things work, I will add visual DoT effects ASAP.
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Yay!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: MORE DOTS!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Well, the same DoTs but visible, but it will sill FEEL like MORE DOTS! :D
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): that be so helpful
NeoBokrug Elytis: I also recently started working with LinkSet Data on the HUD, and somehow my memory use increased? IDK. Gotta look in to that.
Mutsy Kaligawa: woo!
Verity Goodnight: psychological DoT effects!
Mutsy Kaligawa: more brain matter
NeoBokrug Elytis: I am going to make a Cedar Fever disease.
Sketchkat Blackflag: D=
Mutsy Kaligawa: O.o
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha
Mutsy Kaligawa: don’t, please
NeoBokrug Elytis: You’ll just be tired ALL the time, and if you don’t take medicine you’ll sneeze until your soft tissues are raw and bloody.
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): We don’t have trees here!
NeoBokrug Elytis: *yet
NeoBokrug Elytis: Maybe youi gotta burn them all down
NeoBokrug Elytis: YES BURN THEM ALL DOWN
Verity Goodnight: plants that spaff at your when you hit them and then the effect is that it slows you down and gunge oozes from your face?
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): can entering the pit with the witch be a trigger for psychological DOTs? ;-)
NeoBokrug Elytis: HHAHAH
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): w00t!!!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): I know a guy who can help burn them down…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha
NeoBokrug Elytis: I know I did something neat with game stuff, but I can’t remember what. It was the week before WL16B
Mutsy Kaligawa: hmmm
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): You made mutants superior creatures?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Was it a visible thing or an under-the-hood thing?
NeoBokrug Elytis: under-the-hood
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Weapon rebalancing?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Ahh yeah I was working on that.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Racial traits?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Aha!
Mutsy Kaligawa: :)
Sketchkat Blackflag: thought it was, but also thought “is that a trick question” xD
Aposiopesis Fullstop slips Neo last month’s logs for brain prompts. :V https://press.the-wastelands.org/2023/01/14/community-meeting-january-7-2022/
Mutsy Kaligawa: Apo was watching closely it seems
NeoBokrug Elytis: Weapon re-balancing. The LSD thing will make that sort of update nicer.
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): so sayed the CIA in the 70s
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): hahha
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): hahaha!!!
Sketchkat Blackflag: is the patreon flayer still a thing when folks want to add to that?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Also LSD may make pathfinding a little better. One script can constantly update values on the LSD, while another can interpret real time data from it.
Mutsy Kaligawa: xD
NeoBokrug Elytis: Sketchkat: Yes.
Sketchkat Blackflag thumbs ups.
Sandling Honey: Little mishap there on my end
Sandling Honey: sorry
NeoBokrug Elytis: No problem sandling
Aposiopesis Fullstop: …It is? I thought it was only for landowners of a certain threshold now, Neo.
Sandling Honey: Accidentally triggered a shortcut I should not have ;)
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): you’re allowed, and this is such a cool damn song… :-D
Mutsy Kaligawa: We’ll let you off this time Sandling, this time…
NeoBokrug Elytis: I will hae to look in to it apo
Sandling Honey: ;0;
NeoBokrug Elytis: I thought she meant land. It’s called the patreon flayer
Mutsy Kaligawa: Yeah, i think Apo is right ;/
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any other game related questions?
Mutsy Kaligawa: hmm, sure I got something for land area ownership
Mutsy Kaligawa: *shrugs*
Sketchkat Blackflag: aha~ sorry to throw a spanner in the works on that one xD
Aposiopesis Fullstop: The Patreon has only two tiers now, and neither has the Flayer as a reward.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yeah, that’s all by Alden
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Well, Flayer skin, technically.
Mutsy Kaligawa: oh, there’s a bow too, I’ve seen it at Dass’ place
Aposiopesis Fullstop: How about those new rats you mentioned? :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: That’s different Mutsy
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yeah, I was just talking about Pathfinding.
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): RATS
Mutsy Kaligawa: alright
NeoBokrug Elytis: I was poking around with it.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think I want to take what I have learned with the other pathfinding project, and try to use LSD to make that all better.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Ahhh, I see!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Less (FAST) link messages make less script overhead.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I wasn’t sure if that was for the rats or just general-purpose pathfindery for existing things.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And I won’t hit weird event queue caps.
NeoBokrug Elytis: They’re not weird, but for pathfinding to be a fight worthy creature, it all has to work very fast, across at least 2 scripts.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Ooh, wowie.
Sketchkat Blackflag: very tech-y
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): nodnodnod
NeoBokrug Elytis: Moving on to event & RP stuff then!

III. THE ROLEPLAY & EVENTS

NeoBokrug Elytis: With my freed up time, I have been working on the Burnt Oak Drive-In screen. It’s gotten a lot of refactoring, including moving it of Darwin Streaming Server. Which is ~20 years old, and requires a patch to work. We’ve moved to a different software that has more capabilities. As such I’ve also bumped up the quality of the stream, and made some changes to make the whole experience “smoother”
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): and mayo!!! *waves*
Sketchkat Blackflag: ooh excellent ♥
Verity Goodnight: oooh
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): well woofreakinhoooo!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Nice!
Aposiopesis Fullstop:
Riven Raven (riven.tairov): yeah it looked good
NeoBokrug Elytis: The stream loads faster, doesn’t get blocky during transitions, doesn’t drop the last 1-2 seconds of audio from a clip, and is capable of DVD quality streaming now. But there’s one issue I am still fighting with; the occasional sound drop out for a fraction of a second.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think the issue is not actually related to the stream, but the server. So, we’ll see what happens!
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have a good guess at what it is, and have at least 2 ideas for a fix. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: It’s been my little passion project this past couple weeks. Just about done. And then comes the inevitable re-encoding of all the stream of random content. That’ll take forever.
NeoBokrug Elytis: But I plan to remove some things, and add some new things too.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Unrelated to all that I’ve also seen an uptick in people wanting to roleplay, probably because of WL16B.
NeoBokrug Elytis: But, open floor for discussion about events and role-play. After that Fight Night. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Thanks for the Tunes sandling.
Sandling Honey: Most welcome :D
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): This is the 2nd year in a row that I realized I RPed like 2 times that year :-(
Mutsy Kaligawa: wooo!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): I need to fix that.
Mutsy Kaligawa: don’t know how I’m going to introduce my hive queen look just yet, but i will…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Related to events, I’ve been working on a notecard that explains how DJing in SL works! It’s getting the rough bits polished off now, and should be done in a couple weeks.
Mutsy Kaligawa: woo! \o/
Mutsy Kaligawa has stars in their eyes
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): oh damn!! this tune, tho!!!!
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): that’s so cool, apo! looking forward to that! been wanting to understand djing for a while now
Sketchkat Blackflag: the album art for this song is….. perturbing
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): *sings along RL*
Aposiopesis Fullstop: RPwise, that weird Snicker known as “Fren” was at Booze & Blather again the other day. And he’s got some plants he says he’s grown in soil around his sacrificial altar… which may be some cause for concern.
Sketchkat Blackflag: bloodthirty plants~
Sketchkat Blackflag: *thisty
Sketchkat Blackflag: THIRSTY XD
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): lo
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): L O L O L
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): hahaha you’re contagious, sketch!
Mutsy Kaligawa: ooooh
Sketchkat Blackflag: ahaha~ :,D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: It seems like the Fissure Cult is content to flagellate themselves and use their OWN blood for these things… for now?
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): wait .. who is culting in my neighborhood?
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): thinks hairwitch has missed waaay too many booze and blathers lately
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Almost right across the chasm from you!
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): i shal lay some fires
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Colin (thomasratmoreau) is the account name.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: In other Creepy Violent Mystic news, the Oracle is apparently doing her thing again tomorrow.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Appropriate track, Sandling. :V
Sandling Honey: ;D
Mutsy Kaligawa: one about Cc’s GP?
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): GP?
Mutsy Kaligawa: ah, General Practitioner
Mutsy Kaligawa: so like, a doctor
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): i see
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): might well be
Sketchkat Blackflag: hahaha
Mutsy Kaligawa: >w>
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Irk. If we make Big Cute Sad Eyes at you, can we have occasional in-character drum circles again? :V
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Haha! Sure!! See how easy that is!?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: HOORAY!
Verity Goodnight: I didn’t have to lend Apo any eyes :D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: And when we make these eyes – do you prefer hot sauce, sour cream…?
Sketchkat Blackflag: aw, but I had a jar full ready to go ;P
Mutsy Kaligawa: :O
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Nacho sauce, please.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Mmmmmm…
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): Irk. If we make Big Cute Sad Eyes at you, will you take care of mutant cubs?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): haha!!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Left at the doorstep, maybe.
Mutsy Kaligawa: aww, that would be good
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Just make Sismaqui be the babysitter; she’s old enough.
Sandling Honey: thx Sketch :D
Sketchkat Blackflag thumbs ups.
Sketchkat Blackflag: :D
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): i think we can arange that if he hurries up
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha!
Aposiopesis Fullstop:
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): or else! she might be to old to do so
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Are you still planning to only do Fight Night on occasional weeks, Neo?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Correct.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: You’d estimated February before for when that’d go back to weekly. When’s it being pushed out ot now, or is it just indefinite?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: *out to
NeoBokrug Elytis: Uncertain. I am going to try to do it every 2 weeks at least.
Verity Goodnight: :thinky face: does it require burning the cedar trees?
Sketchkat Blackflag: ;D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: No, he cancelled it long before cedar season because we had too many consecutive weeks of not-enough-players.
Sketchkat Blackflag: aye, we had cartoons
Verity Goodnight: a-ha
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oooh, I’ve been meaning to listen to more Holly Herndon, Sandling. :D
Sandling Honey: She does such awesome things with her voice <3
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Yessss.
Sketchkat Blackflag: super cool 83
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh yeah! Wanted to drop in another mention of the Roleplay Character directory on the Wiki – with the template to make your own profile! https://wiki.the-wastelands.org/Category:Player_Characters
Sketchkat Blackflag: oh thanks for the reminder x3 haha… no pun intended, still sketchy whch ‘look’ to pick xD
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha!
Sketchkat Blackflag: *which… wow typos
Mutsy Kaligawa: ah
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Well, if you – or anyone – ever want some feedback about character creation or gearing up an avatar thematically or such, I’m always happy to help!
Mutsy Kaligawa: one thing I don’t know what to decide. Would I be mutant or manimal in this form?
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): I’d say mutant.
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): night
NeoBokrug Elytis: If I am being honest, Neither.
Mutsy Kaligawa: hmmmm =w=
Sketchkat Blackflag: it’s very monster
NeoBokrug Elytis: Heh, sorry. Give this a whirl: https://wiki.the-wastelands.org/Category:Playable_Races
NeoBokrug Elytis: You’d have to make something special to fit as a playable race.
NeoBokrug Elytis: That form, is unacceptable. :(
NeoBokrug Elytis: As cool as it looks.
Mutsy Kaligawa: well I know for sure I’m not the top 3
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Everything’s bipeds, basically.
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): mutants is the top 3
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha!
The Mutant Witch of the Wastes (ccindy.pfeffer): the rest is E tier
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Truth.
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): HAHA
NeoBokrug Elytis: Okay! Let’s clear out of the arena, and see if we can wrangle at least 6 players for Fight Night!