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:
➳ Occupancy has stayed fairly steady, but is still low after a grid-wide rough summer. Things often pick back up in Fall.
➳ Neo plans to advertise The Wastelands at relevant hubs and events elsewhere on the Grid.
➳ There’s been a rash of abandoned vehicles lately. If you find one, let Neo or Apo know so it can be returned!
➳ To keep things from being abandoned on your own land, keep 32 prims free for vehicle and maintain an auto-return of 15 minutes (but make sure all the objects on your land are set to the same group as the land, or they’ll get returned too.)
➳ The first phase of the Northgate Community Gateway is nearly complete!
➳ Though Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is out on the vanilla and Firestorm viewers, its rollout has been shaky enough that Neo is going to wait a while to pursue updating the land textures to use it.
➳ Other new land texture features are in LL’s pipeline, as well: more control over where textures change, and perhaps the ability to “paint” one of four textures on land.
➳ Neo plans to install teleporters from Caledon to The Wastelands and vice-versa.
➳ For roleplayers, going from The Wastelands to Caledon will be “a non-canonical dream experience.”
GAME:
➳ Doktor Aeg’s Potion Quest has returned, featuring new locations in the new regions!
➳ Players can now choose a random task for 30 EXP, or spend 45 EXP to specify a Potion Quest or Mushroom Hunt.
➳ With the new sites, there are now about 8,300 possible combinations to gather. Gotta catch ’em all?
➳ Both quests are likely to get an extra feature after Neo finishes the Halloween Quest.
➳ There will be a Halloween Quest! Likely a simple one.
➳ The EXP cap is likely to remain at 50 until Neo does more analysis.
➳ LL’s newly-released Combat 2.0 functions are unlikely to be useful to our system.
➳ Neo is still investigating the inconsistent falling damage.
➳ Code has been created to make a stuck Miasma relocate to the nearest safe location, rather than a random place in the sim – but has not been applied yet.
➳ When that functionality is applied and tested, it will someday form the basic pathfinding for new Critters.
➳ No ETA on that update, or any others – it’s been a very difficult year – but hopefully more updates will happen before the end of the year.
➳ New locations are still welcomed for Aeg’s Potion Quest! If you’re a landowner and you’d like your location to be part of the task, see the relevant page of the Wiki for more details! (Already submitted your location? Please resend it; it was lost in the hard drive crash!)
ROLEPLAY & EVENTS:
➳ Thank you to everyone from The Wastelands, Caledon, and wandering visitors who performed for or attended the Steam Meets Scrap Mobile Viewer Release Party on the 31st!
➳ This may become an annual event, just for the heck of it.
➳ The Rondyvoo returns on Saturday, September 14 – an all-day semi-in-character traders’ festival featuring fistfights, a salvage auction, live music by Dia G, a Varmint Hunt, a Weird Beard contest, Fight Night, a drinking contest, storytelling, and more
➳ Wasted Karaoke shall be inflicted once again on September 28 in lieu of Apo’s DJ set.
➳ Halloween isn’t too long away now! TRIGGER TREAT will take place on Saturday, October 26th – if you’d like to DJ or perform live, get in touch with Apo!
➳ Trick-or-Treating will return, as well.
➳ Dassina may host some more Learn How To Fight Nights in the future.
➳ 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
Occasional Sundays at Dass’s Discretion: [RP] I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today Trade Event – 10am
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; Fight Night – 3pm
Second Saturday: Barrelhead Bazaar [RP Event] – 11am
Third Saturday: Wasted Raiders’ Raid – Noon
Occasional Saturdays at Neo’s Discretion: Saturday Morning Cartoons / Saturday Morning Sci-Fi – 8am, Enjoying Other People’s Suffering – 3pm.
Occasional Saturdays at Apo’s Discretion: Wasted Karaoke – 4pm.
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.
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): \o/
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Good evening folks. I am a bit more prone to typos and slower typing tonight. I kind of donked up my wrist last night. So for now it is in a brace as I type. So please bear with me.
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): oh noes D:
Aposiopesis Fullstop passes the WD-40.
Storm Thunders: we’re braced for typos!
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): tyt Neo :o
Aposiopesis Fullstop: HEY! *rimshot*
NeoBokrug Elytis: As per the usual, we talk about the three main aspects of the estate, with time for questions in between. Those aspects are land & estate, The Game, and Roleplay & Events. With the latter being more of an open floor discussion.
The Digger (sandusky.kayvon): ouch, wrest that wrist! you could just voice talk if you want
NeoBokrug Elytis: Starting with land and estate;
NeoBokrug Elytis: Occupancy has remained relatively steady this past month. I think we just got all the hemorrhaging done last month. Now that fall is here I do expect an uptick this month. I hope to recover our losses since last month.
NeoBokrug Elytis: July and August were particularly rough on me personally, so I haven’t been as attentive as I usually am with The Wastelands, but I am back full-time now. I’ve been picking at small things here and there as I make the rounds.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I found a few abandoned vehicles here and there, sent them home.
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): still, don’t forget to rest that wrist!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha I will, it just popped up last night.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I know a lot of folks have auto-return off, and that’s fine. However, if you’re not borrowing the parcel decor that comes with land, consider turning auto-return on to 15 minutes or longer. 15 is the sweet spot for most things. Short enough to combat griefin’ should that ever happen, long enough for folks to take pictures.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Before you turn it on though, make sure that all the objects on your land are set to the same group as the land, or something will get returned.
NeoBokrug Elytis: If you don’t own it. And if your land is deeded to a group all objects HAVE to be set to the group.
Dassina Andel: Also, it’s a good idea to keep at least 32 Land Impact free in your own parcel.
NeoBokrug Elytis: But generally, Deeding land to a group is often not required — unless you’re sharing your prims with another resident in the same region.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And what Dass said, 32 extra LI will let folks in vehicles cross.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any questions on parcel settings and the like?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Moving on then!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Word of mouth has always been a boon to The Wastelands. If you have friends or other folks outside of The Wastelands, who also enjoy The Wastelands, show them around.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I plan to do a little “commercial” advertising of the estate. I had mentioned I would do this a few months ago, and I think it’s time.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Since because fall is the usual uptick for SL, and I can hopefully amplify that.
NeoBokrug Elytis: (heh frell this brace)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any questions about estate related things before I move on to game things?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: How’s Northgate coming along?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Slow, but almost worthy of being called open — even if it will need more add-on work after opening. I have a helper HUD leveraging some newer functions for folks.
Katie (katie.canningham): What is Northgate?
NeoBokrug Elytis: I will need basic translations soon, but I’ll ask for that after it is open and wording is finalized.
NeoBokrug Elytis: A community gateway, like Caledon Oxbridge.
Katie (katie.canningham): oh cool!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Have you asked Gutterblood about making PBR textures yet?
NeoBokrug Elytis: for land? Not yet. There’s a lot of turmoil surrounding PBR, and I want LL to get it to a point where there’s less issues.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Ahhh.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Because currently you can ONLY have PBR land textures or normal textures. There’s no back-up.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And LL might have the “paint on land” feature done.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Ahhh.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Befoer that.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Yeah, worth waiting, then. The textures are already good!
NeoBokrug Elytis: A JIRA I proposed forever ago, which when LL migrated to the new feature request system, someone asked something along the same lines, and I just linked to my old feature, and I think LL is adopting a lot of it.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Finally.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I want to paint trash. :)
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): xD
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): Brick-a-brack
NeoBokrug Elytis: We’re still going to have only 4 textures, but having the ability to say where the textures are applied, is far better than the pseudo-random generation based on the hight definitions we have now.
NeoBokrug Elytis: height
Aposiopesis Fullstop: And the textures won’t stretch weirdly, yeah?
NeoBokrug Elytis: If you enable an additional setting, yes.
NeoBokrug Elytis: One thing I hope to finish in the next month is a teleporter from caledon and vice-versa. It will be in the caves of course. However, going from The Wastelands to Caledon will be a non-canonical dream experience for those who roleplay.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Free hallucinations!
Storm Thunders: sounds like a RAID!
Dassina Andel: WL: Moongate. ;)
Katie (katie.canningham): pleasant ones
Tristan Kuramoto: haha
Storm Thunders: get hopped up on purps, run through the caves to the green place!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Caledon won’t be under the same restrictions, because they’re a bit more lax with RP. They have steampunk science, and some magic, so things will be fine for them.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Moving on to game stuff!
Tristan Kuramoto: that is cool
Katie (katie.canningham): we also have cookies
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): neat!
II. THE GAME
NeoBokrug Elytis: Doktor Aeg got several updates this past week.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: They can pop over to parallel universes for tea. But we get to eat mushrooms that taste like plaid and smell like Tuesday.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The first is that the potion quest is back. It has been updated with new locations for the new regions, while a few older locations were removed.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Second, you can now CHOOSE whether or not you want a random quest for 30 Exp, or pick a specific quest for 45 Exp.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I should also mention that the potion quest has about 8.3k different combinations now. So for a daily quest, you’ll have plenty of variety.
Dassina Andel: HIGH praise for allowing us to choose Aeg’s task… but with the higher EXP cost, can we discuss raising the EXP cap?
NeoBokrug Elytis: No Exp cap raise for now.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I thought about it while working on it, and I need to review many things before I can consider it again.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Sorry, brain holes…
NeoBokrug Elytis: Just to reiterate for folks who’ve never done the daily quests here, Aeg has easier quests that are less dangerous. Alden has dangerous quests. Aeg gives food rewards, typically mushrooms for the mushroom quest, and basic food and papers for the potion exploration quest.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have one more special thing to add to both quests, but probably not until after halloween. I am going to make another Halloween quest this year, and invite Caledon to come and play. It’ll probably be pretty simple. I want to try to do something unique.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Dassina Andel: If you consider Coffee Beans “basic” food… ;)
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): \o/
Katie (katie.canningham): ooo sounds like fun!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Simple ain’t bad. You’ve got enough on your plate.
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): Ooo bubbly
Katie (katie.canningham): Neo has several plates, too
NeoBokrug Elytis: Linden Lab recently released Combat 2.0 options, and most features do not apply to what we use. I am glad they are making it easier for folks though.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Thanks for the tunes sandling. :)
Sandling Honey: ywww :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: Before I move on to events and RP, any questions?
Dassina Andel: Is it intentional that crates are dropping in Bitter Ridge? Not complaining, but it’s rather… interesting trying to grab some of them that have landed on building roofs there.
Katie (katie.canningham): Are the meeting notes archived?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yes it is intentional, I will poke Ccindy about that.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Katie: https://press.the-wastelands.org
Sandling Honey: Thx for the tips :D
Katie (katie.canningham): ah! thankee!
Dassina Andel: Is Falling Damage next up on the debug plate?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yaeh, I am pretty sure the potion flasks break if you take falling damage still, even if damage is not applied.
Dassina Andel: That is correct
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Are Miasma updates still in the works?
NeoBokrug Elytis: They are doing rather well Apo.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Uh
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): yw Sandling!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: You said you had a new thing you wanted to do so they didn’t go somewhere random, but somewhere close. So you could then apply that to future Critters.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Oh yes, that.
Antares Thane (vickycriss): Yay, critters.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have the code someplace, I just need to apply it. Right now they woosh across a region if lost.
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.draconia): gargoyles
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): oh yes
Dassina Andel: I swear Dust Devils have a tendency to “wander” towards a player in their vicinity, but I also could be completely imagining it.
NeoBokrug Elytis: They move randomly.
NeoBokrug Elytis: They need an update so they don’t become tired. Stupid LL and the “energy” system of some functions.
Tristan Kuramoto cant wait to see new wasteland creatures.
NeoBokrug Elytis: This year so far has been UGGH. Hopefully these past few weeks continue for the rest of the year.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Before I open the floor for Events & RP ~
Dassina Andel: Just a thought, but would there be a possibility to spawn a Miasma around a HUDed player near a Salvage Masheen that has been idle for far too long?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Delegate things when you need to.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’d rather not Dass.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Just stab them.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Uh
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Since when can we start fights at the Masheen?
Dassina Andel: Tha goes against your “No Fighting” rule around the Masheens. ;)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Just go to another one.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Oh I see.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yeah, there’s a couple masheens across the estate, find another.
Dassina Andel: Some of us saw what happened when there was fighting around a Masheen… or trying to steal one.
Dassina Andel: I would love to see a Salvage Masheen return to the shack in Malady Bog.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Things for me to contemplate. :)
III. THE ROLEPLAY & EVENTS
NeoBokrug Elytis: A lot of folks in Caledon and The Wastelands really liked the Steam Meets Scrap event. I want to thank everyone who performed, and came to visit, it was really cool.
Lune (lunesta.matova): That build was fantastic, Neo.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: That was fun. Thanks for putting it together!
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): Yeah, that was awesome :D
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): both!
Katie (katie.canningham): the music was great too!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Many have asked me to make it an annual event. I am not opposed to the idea, but I didn’t build the build with the mindset of reusing it. So, I am on the fence about all of it still. I have yet to clean it up, but I will eventually.
NeoBokrug Elytis: As far as events go, that one was really smooth.
Katie (katie.canningham): The build can be different
NeoBokrug Elytis: It should have been a 2 day event though.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I know a lot of folks were fretting about ONLY 1 hour.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: It is so small a time!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Plus 14 folks! It was a great mix-up to see what both communities brought to the table.
NeoBokrug Elytis: So I will consider it as time wears on.
NeoBokrug Elytis: OH
NeoBokrug Elytis: I FORGOT
NeoBokrug Elytis: Back to the Potion Quest; When my hard drive died last year, the notes I took about resident builds being part of the quest were lost. If you want your build to be part of the quest there’s instructions here. if you gave me information and it wasn’t part of the quest, or you gave it to me when the quest was offline, I have lost it. Please resubmit it to me.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And for those who are new, and want something in there, just follow the instructions at the bottom.
Dassina Andel: What timeframe of submission? More to the point, do I need to resubmit the Quick-Halt as a location? &.&;
NeoBokrug Elytis: Aside from that, I am going to open the floor for roleplay and events discussion. At the top of the hour we’re going to have Fight Night here in the Arena.
NeoBokrug Elytis: quick halt is in there, as it was there before.
Dassina Andel: Ahh, gotcha. People always stealin’ my fish bones….
NeoBokrug Elytis: No time frame, but sooner is better.
Storm Thunders wonders if goat poos could be considered a strange but interesting alchemical thing…
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Next Saturday is THE RONDYVOO out in Hambone Slough! An all-day, semi-in-character traders’ festival featuring fistfights, a salvage auction, LIVE MUSIC by Dia, a Varmint Hunt, weird beard contest, Fight Night, storytelling, activities, and more!
Tristan Kuramoto: woo
Aposiopesis Fullstop: If you’d like a customizable market stall to trade from, lemme know – it’s not too late to get in on it!
Dassina Andel: And I’ve got a big ol’ crate of something ready to go for Rondyvoo.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Right on!
Dassina Andel: Gather your Trader Scrit up for that. ;)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: There’s a non-zero chance that I’ll be replacing my DJ set on the 28th with yet another Wasted Karaoke. Fret accordingly.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Also, it’s somehow September already, so not too soon to start prepping for TRIGGER TREAT, which will be on October 26! :D
Tristan Kuramoto: spooky month woo
NeoBokrug Elytis: am excite
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I presume there’ll be Trick-or-Treating again, Neo? :D
Storm Thunders: yay skele season!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yes. Caledon really enjoyed our tradition, so I will be inviting them again soon.
Tristan Kuramoto: need to think of a new costume
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
NeoBokrug Elytis: I may make a spreadsheet this year.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Spreadsheets are helpful!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Or maybe I’ll leverage the map API and make a custom page or something IDK
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): a spooky spreadsheet
Dassina Andel: I have some… plans for Trigger Treat Fight Night… just something to make it a little interesting for everyone participating. I’ll just say, I’m going to do my best that everyone pulls lots of triggers. >.>
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): and they will get lots of treats?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Okay lets start heading outside of the arena, so we can get it ready for the fights, of the nights.
Lune (lunesta.matova): Thanks, Neo
NeoBokrug Elytis: Thanks for bein’ here. :)
Katie (katie.canningham): thanks Neo!