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 first 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!
ESTATE:
New Regions!
➳ Thanks to some fortuitous circumstances, two new regions have been added to the Estate: Bitter Ridge and Malady Bog!
➳ Bitter Ridge is a new Homestead owned by Stitches and Ironblood. Located west of Burnt Oak, where Bloodmoss Swamp once stood, it will hold the ruins of the old Firecracker! Cola bottling plant and its company town.
➳ Malady Bog is a full region found west of The Wastelands proper: it first came online in 2008 and had to be let go in 2012, but now it’s back, with alterations and improvements!
➳ Malady Bog has a variety of parcel sizes, and also has a 1.5 prim multiplier, meaning that some new price points are now available.
Land Sale!
➳ To celebrate, there’s a Land Sale until May 15: all parcels cost only two weeks’ worth of tier, without the L$1-per-LI-supported extra!
➳ After the 15th, there’ll be a small increase on parcel prices: from [(two weeks worth of tier) + (L$1 x the prim count)] to [(two weeks worth of tier) + (L$1.5 x the prim count)]
➳ This is not a tier increase: it’s only on the initial purchase price of a parcel.
➳ It’s possible that this could go up to [(two weeks worth of tier) + (L$2 x the prim count)] at the end of the year, but Neo’s not sure if he’ll do that yet; that L$2 factor would be as high as it would go.
EEP Updates!
➳ Neo has updated the EEP settings so that all visitors, whether they’re part of the Experience or not, can see the sky settings and our broken moon.
➳ There’s now a more seamless transition when crossing region borders.
➳ Neo aims to create a new basic Windlight, then create seasonal variations to the atmosphere and water colors.
GAME:
➳ Visible DoT effects have returned! Collect all four!
➳ LL has also fixed the bug that caused the camera to clip into someone’s head while in Mouselook after getting a DoT effect.
➳ Salvage spawning will be turned on in Malady Bog during the week of May 7, but Alden’s quest crates can already appear there.
➳ Salvage will also spawn in Bitter Ridge when the region is more complete.
➳ Mushroom Quests may be expanded to Malady Bog.
➳ Leeches are already there…
➳ Neo has improved the pathfinding code and may apply it to critters and Dust Devils soon.
➳ Falling damage is still intermittent; Neo is looking into it.
➳ Even though the Buzzards have a sort of prestige system where they get stronger after killing fighters, they can’t be made to stay around the region any longer than usual.
➳ Neo has been looking into some new lower-LI animesh creatures for potential mobs.
ROLEPLAY & EVENTS:
➳PROMAGEDDON will return to The Arena on Saturday, May 27! Don your filithiest formalwear for a full day of music, dancing, and bloodsport.
➳ Thank you to everyone who participated in The Red Revival – and a particular welcome to Dev Voxel who chose to “heed The Call” and is now our newest Ghoul.
➳ Dassina has opened the Dirt Mall in The Wastelands Proper, where scavengers can sell their scrap.
➳ Dass is also starting a new in-character merchant alliance: The Klurks.
➳ The Joon Buzzard Hunt is coming up in, well, June! Winners get prizes and glory; Irk will share more details soon.
➳ 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
First Sunday: [RP] Readings by the Oracle – Noon
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
Occasional Saturdays at Neo’s Discretion: Saturday Morning Cartoons – 8am, Fight Night – 3pm, Enjoying Other People’s Suffering – 3pm.
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!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Before I get in to it, thank you Sandling for hosting music for the meetings. :)
Sandling Honey: Most welcome :D – 2nd hour will move over into cooldown mode!
NeoBokrug Elytis: As per the usual, we’ll be talking about the three main aspects of the estate. The land, games, and then RP & Events; with time for questions in between.
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): QUESTions
Tristan Kuramoto: woo
NeoBokrug Elytis: To start occupancy has been doing well.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Two new regions have been added to the estate: Bitter Ridge and Malady Bog.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: WAHOO!
Aposiopesis Fullstop cheers!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Yay!!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Stitches and Ironblood had been talking with me about Bitter Ridge for a couple weeks. I made them go through the whole deal of making sure they had plans in place.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Malady Bog became a fortunate addition… For those who don’t know the story let me try to summarize.
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): ooh storytime
NeoBokrug Elytis: I had been planning on getting Bitter Ridge, and while those plans were congealing an old SL friend offered me a grandfathered homestead for just the price of (expensive) transfer fees to keep grandfathered status. They also had another full grandfathered region to offload, and the opportunity was too good to pass. With that opportunity and estate occupancy doing rather well these past years, I pulled the trigger and here we are.
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): WOO!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Malady Bog WAS an old region of ours 11 years ago, but it had to go during tough times. But now it’s back in spirit, but not exactingly the same.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Mutsy Kaligawa: woo!
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): woooooo!
Verity Goodnight: wooo
Tristan Kuramoto: woo
Sandling Honey: Who could pass up the opportunity for a bonus swamp
NeoBokrug Elytis: As such I am having a big land sale about it now; though the free move program will remain suspended to Malady until August 1st
NeoBokrug Elytis: In the past week folks have scooped up Swamp land and normal land; so the sale is pretty effective. :)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Nice! :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: The sale ends a week from tomorrow. So if you’re thinking about it, you better make up your mind soon. :)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: In other words:
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Do it!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Once the sale is over, parcel prices will go to 2 weeks of tier plus 1.5 times the amount of prims a parcel supports.
NeoBokrug Elytis: This is a minor increase from the 1 times the prims a parcel supports; something I spoke of when parcel prices changed last year (or the start of this year?)
NeoBokrug Elytis: I hope that by the end of the year to hit 2x the prims it supports and that’s where I’ll stop.
NeoBokrug Elytis: But it may just stick at 1.5, we’ll see.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Special thanks to Ccindy for helping me decorate Malady Bog. We tried to create interesting areas no matter where you live there.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: The terraforming is really great. A lot more natural than the first version, I gotta say. Haha
NeoBokrug Elytis: The region has a 1.5 prim multiplier on it, which is different from our 1 and 2 multiplier. Because of that it makes available some different price points in tier — which fill some gaps on things.
NeoBokrug Elytis: It is a nice middle ground between a large plot, and lots of prims for the plot size.
Mutsy Kaligawa: I love it!
NeoBokrug Elytis: And it was hard to make the math work out with the spare infrastructure. And in fact, I messed up the first two maps and had to restart completely on one. The latter one just required some shuffling and it worked.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think that’s about it regarding land; any questions about land stuff so far?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh, I had one…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I think you actually answered it the other day when I asked, but I’ve got sieve-brain: did you say you were thinking about making the swamp water less clear-looking, once you get the EEP things wrangled a bit more? (Or when they fix that one JIRA you submitted?)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Swamp Water: Yes, and that kind of leads into something I forgot to mention. I do want to update the EEP/Windlight settings for the estate overall still. Right now the swamp water on defauly eep settings looks meh.
Tristan Kuramoto: looks nice and clean :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: Also the entire estate has a new windlight system. You no longer need to be part of our game experience to see the busted moon and ambiance.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Once I get a windlight together I really like, I will try to work with the new eep functions to have seasonal changes that look good, both the atmosphere and water. But I found a bug on the JIA.
Verity Goodnight: nice
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Ooh…
NeoBokrug Elytis: One slight benefit of the new estate windlight system is that it won’t yoyo when crossing regions anymore.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any other questions about land stuff?
Memory Harker: :D
Sandling Honey: <3 :D
XathaX (xathax.noyes): I moved from over there to over here. do I need to take my mailbox into inventory and re rez to make it work?
NeoBokrug Elytis: If you own multiple parcels, you should have one mailbox on each parcel. An aut-tier-paying mailbox only pays for the parcel it’s over.
XathaX (xathax.noyes): I tried to reset it but was late on teir nonetheless
XathaX (xathax.noyes): yeah it’s on the new parcel
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yeah, just click it to do the “interview” process again.
XathaX (xathax.noyes): ok
NeoBokrug Elytis: If it doesn’t set up for some reason, or spits out an error, please let me know.
XathaX (xathax.noyes): okie
XathaX (xathax.noyes): I have 4 weeks to make it work
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’ve never resurrected a region before. Could be some undead flesh gumming up the works.
XathaX (xathax.noyes): or just pay at the thing
XathaX (xathax.noyes): no biggie
XathaX (xathax.noyes): no worries
NeoBokrug Elytis: I wanna make sure it works, but whatever payment method works best for you. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any other questions about estate or land things?
XathaX (xathax.noyes): I like the box
XathaX (xathax.noyes): that way if I die you get all my L
Memory Harker: Who gets your doughnuts? (Do you HAVE doughnuts? This girl must know!)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha! You’re not allowed to die. :)
Memory Harker: >.>
Memory Harker: <.<
XathaX (xathax.noyes): no donuts srry
XathaX (xathax.noyes): trying not to die
NeoBokrug Elytis: Good. :)
Mutsy Kaligawa: if we find bits of flesh in the bog, can you assure us they won’t come to life and try to infect us?
NeoBokrug Elytis: I cannot.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha!
Mutsy Kaligawa: darn it
NeoBokrug Elytis: It is a “feature”
NeoBokrug Elytis: Moving on to game things.
II. THE GAME
NeoBokrug Elytis: I made two updates to the HUD, only one of which I can remember right now/
Memory Harker: *makes note*
Storm Thunders wonders why the leeches in malady bog look like zombie heads…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha!
NeoBokrug Elytis: I brought back visible DoT effects, which should be in full force for Fight Night tonight. I am EAGER to see people on fire again.
Memory Harker: XD
Aposiopesis Fullstop: YESSSS.
Sandling Honey: haha
Memory Harker: :D :D :D
Dassina Andel: Or puking, or bleeding
Memory Harker wants to watch that Beedit fall in the lava, like she used to! BLAZING!
Memory Harker: :D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I hope that “the camera glitches to be inside your skull and you can see all your head attachments” bug got fixed by LL, too…
Memory Harker: XD
NeoBokrug Elytis: Since the visible DoT effects were part of the OLD DoT system, I just had to finish up my migrations to the new system. They didn’t make it to the new system because of a bug that caused your script memory to linger, even if objects detached.
Tristan Kuramoto: I noticed something cool i did not know was a thing, the swimming animation in the hud :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: LL fixed that late last year, or early this year; again time has no meaning.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh, back in Blursember, then.
Memory Harker: XD
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha yeah, beware swimming in swamp waters though.
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): whispers: *snickers* blursember…
Tristan Kuramoto: ya i fell in there hudded
NeoBokrug Elytis: Speaking of game things in swamps.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I dunno, those leeches might have to be pretty desperate to try drinking a Tristan…
NeoBokrug Elytis: Next week I will turn on salvage in Malady.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Tristan Kuramoto: woo
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): woooooo!
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): that’s very cool! :-)
Verity Goodnight: ooh
NeoBokrug Elytis: Malady may have some growing pains for salvage tweaking, but we’ll do what we can.
Dassina Andel: Water in Great Fissure, ALSO has leeches, so be careful.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Once Bitter Ridge gets more done, it’ll get salvage too.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Yessss.
Tristan Kuramoto: i saw the miasma there already
Storm Thunders: ie, look up in the branches for crates? :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think Alden might send you to Malady for quests at the moment.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Nah storm. :)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha, hopefully not “look inside the tree trunks” either!
NeoBokrug Elytis: We’ll see how it all plays out. Perhaps I can expand the mushroom quests to include those areas.
Memory Harker: :)
Storm Thunders: moar shrooms!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oooooh…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: MUSHROOMS!
Memory Harker: *blink*
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): i think stitches was in talks with n0th1ng about building the outside of the firecracker plant for us
NeoBokrug Elytis: Though it may just be mushrooms from THIS area, or THAT area, both having a spawn really.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh dang, that’d be badass, Ironblood – he does great work.
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): yesssss
NeoBokrug Elytis: That’s pretty cool. He’s got a small plot of land and is an old time resident, but now does the events gauntlet. :)
Tristan Kuramoto: cant wait to be able to visit the firecracker plant
Dassina Andel: So want WL: Firecracker! Soda as a drink item…
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think that’s about it for game stuff; any questions or anything?
Dassina Andel: Is Falling damage bugfixing next in line?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Last month, there was some surprise you were working on. Is that still in the works, or is it gonna be for next April Fool’s instead?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha I will try to work on it this month. It’ll go good with Malady
Dassina Andel: Falling damage seems to only do actual damage, by falling REALLY far.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The new regions work just fell in to my lap; so that took priority.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Hmm. I will have to look in to that I guess.
Dassina Andel: Like, Great Fissure kind of drops
NeoBokrug Elytis: All that miasma is making your skin and bones rubbery.
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): you need clone minions, neo.
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): haha
Tristan Kuramoto: will there be any new npcs in the future?
Mutsy Kaligawa: Indeed
NeoBokrug Elytis: Not in the near dfuture.
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique) is already an npc
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh, I had a question…
NeoBokrug Elytis: I know some folks make simple quests for new visitors and game players, and I think that’s delightful.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: So those animesh rats that were 51 LI are too primly to be a potential game mob. What’s the max that would be acceptable, in case we find something?
NeoBokrug Elytis: The answer is: The lower the better. To me 51 is too much for a rat. Might be okay for something larger.
Mutsy Kaligawa: The maxx
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oooooh…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: In that case, I may have a shop recommendation for you later!
Mutsy Kaligawa: brb
Dassina Andel: The ROUS’s? ;)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Cool. I have collected a few things this past month.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And they have to have good LODs to be seen at a distance.
Sandling Honey: What if everything at a distance looks like food instead?
Candide LeMay: we should petition LL to make the animesh LI formula less punishing
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha, indeed. I do not wish to be a triangle hunter.
Tristan Kuramoto: Will Saul ever return?
Tristan Kuramoto: or he ded ded?
Storm Thunders: will the sad angry remnants of Saul return?
NeoBokrug Elytis: I like the animesh formula, it’s just that creators NEED to do a good job to get good LI with animesh.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: There was familiar handwriting on that last Foodmas platter….
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): He lives in all of us.
Dassina Andel: Honestly? I kind of hope Saul doesn’t.
Tristan Kuramoto: creepy man
Tristan Kuramoto: lol
Candide LeMay: i would prefer if the animesh base 15LI cost counted against your geometry, not on top of it
Dassina Andel: As much as I love his Fish, Saul made it ridiculously easy to stockpile food.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Are you still sanding the edges off the new pathfinding?
NeoBokrug Elytis: You forget skeletons and animations are involved though, as well as a rendering hit. I don’t mind the 15 base cost, and I think animesh is using a very different formula vs normal content as well.
Candide LeMay: the viewer is much better now at rendering rigged mesh so it should handle more animesh objects compared to a year ago
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have this hybrid pathfinding setup I am working on. I suppose it’s “good enough”. I may update the buzzards with it.
NeoBokrug Elytis: File a feature request JIRA Candide. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Maybe LL will consider it.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Dude, they still have semi-procedurally rendered grass and terrain textures; it’s going to be A WHILE before they think about upping that.
Candide LeMay: i was planning to go to one of the LL meetings to ask about it
Dassina Andel: Bring back Brominites… as a source of Iron Scrap, like how buzzards provide us with stuff. >.>
NeoBokrug Elytis: Vir Linden at the content creation meeting is who you want to bug. Anne and I were there for the bulk of the animesh introduction.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I just want “pathfinding”, however I implement it to work well on the estate. THat’s the hurdle I struggle with. Pathfinding in SL was made specifically for regions and lands designed with pathfinding in mind. The Wastelands is dynamic and owned by about 100 avatars, so there’s no one GOOD solution for pathfinding, as so many issues crop up.
NeoBokrug Elytis: There’s a reason the buzzards spawn on the wide and open homesteads, and why miasmas wander lazily across the estate.
Tristan Kuramoto: btw killed my first one yesterday :D
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): first ever?
Tristan Kuramoto: ya
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): :O
Storm Thunders: whoo!
Tristan Kuramoto: lol
Tristan Kuramoto: i dont salvage much but decided to yesterday
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): well done homie
Dassina Andel: Do not underestimate the effectiveness of a Nail Gain against a buzzard.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Yaaay, birdmurder!
NeoBokrug Elytis: That’s it for game stuff, any last questions before I open up the floor for RP and Events discussion?
Tristan Kuramoto: i used my crowbill
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): oh game stuff. if you see a buzzard with stars. leave it the fuck alone
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha
Tristan Kuramoto: it was shortly after i got some stew and was leaving
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique) is speaking from experience
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha, a seldom seen, and oft forgotten feature of mobs here.
Storm Thunders: stars?
NeoBokrug Elytis: They learn from killing others, and become more difficult in their own rights.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Asterisks in their hovertext.
Tristan Kuramoto: do they run from you?
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): oh, ok
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): they one shot you and dont die lol
Tristan Kuramoto: i hit it a few times it moved fast away thought i lost it then a few mins later it came back and attacked me
NeoBokrug Elytis: Some critters can run away. They have all sorts of behaviors that mostly go unnoticed.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Sometime eventually, can stars make them stick around longer?
Tristan Kuramoto: it only got me gown to 85 percent
NeoBokrug Elytis: Apo: No.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Not a whole lot of interest in a megabuzzard if it’s still just going to despawn in random=4
NeoBokrug Elytis: Land limitations.
Tristan Kuramoto: maybe one day crazed wastelanders
Tristan Kuramoto: that attack
NeoBokrug Elytis: These last 10 minutes are now an open floor for RP and Events discussion. The Red Revival was fun. :)
III. THE ROLEPLAY & EVENTS
Dassina Andel: The Dirt Mall has now opened next to the bunker here in WL, and it’s open to all who wish for a place to sell their WL Salvage/goods/food. There’s a good RP reason for why the Dirt Mall and the new “Klurks” merchant group have come into being, which will play out over time. For now, anyone wishing to put up their goods in the Dirt Mall, contact me about a group invite. Also looking for builders to help season the place with good decoration.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Nice!
Tristan Kuramoto: man i need more group space
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Many thanks to everyone who came to, or performed for, or volunteered to sacrifice themselves at, the Red Revival! And we do indeed have a new Ghoul in town as a result…
Sandling Honey: Thx! :D
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): Irk already has stuff out at the Dirt Mall.
Tristan Kuramoto: where is it located?
Dassina Andel: Right next to the Bunker, by the broken section of train tracks
Tristan Kuramoto: okies
Tora the Explorer (toraona.thane): alrighty then!
Irk (shannonwilsonbell): The Joon Buzard Hunt is coming up… in June. Every buzzard kill during June will be counted by the HUD and the winners will receive gold and glory! Stay tuned for details and updates…
Dassina Andel: Entrance there, and by the road to the South
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: My goal’s to get at least 10 kills this year. Said that LAST year, too, but…
Tristan Kuramoto: I might give it a try
Aposiopesis Fullstop: PROMAGEDDON is nigh – on Saturday, May 27th! A skewed subversion of formal dances, Promageddon is a chance to dress up in your fanciest rags and dance all day and all night to a bevy of DJs and live performers! Even The Arena will be decked out in dire decorations!
Dassina Andel: Just for clarity sake, the Klurks, are considered a separate group from the Renegades.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Plus a couples-only Fight Night of 2-on-2 fights, ultimately duking it out for the crowns of Prom King and Prom Queen! So pick yourselves a fighting partner. (Though we’ll hopefully also have a battle royale Stag Stab for everyone who wants in! :D )
Dassina Andel: Think more of, a collective of all of the merchants here in WL. Debslok’s Traders excluded. ;)
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): stag stab
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): oh my
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique): lol
Tristan Kuramoto: Have the posters come off the press yet?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: And the usual ingloriously subjective outfit contest (unless I actually wrangle up some kind of fairish voting system somehow, but don’t count on it. :P)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: There’s a teaser poster on the fence behind you, but I can emit ones to those who want ’em!
Mutsy Kaligawa: PROMAGEDDON!
Tristan Kuramoto: I will take one
Kurk (ironblood.mechanique):
Mutsy Kaligawa: woot!
NeoBokrug Elytis: In these last 5 minutes, let’s all move outside the arena to the east, so I can host Fight Night.