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Fellow Genesis Enthusiasts,
Well, here we are pulling out of our sunny Summer months and heading back
toward the grey and rainy Fall. Terrible news for frisbee, but good news
for Mudding! Also, it signals me to post an update as to the progress we've
made in the last month(s) as we head toward our 25th Anniversary Celebration
of Genesis.
As is so often the case, Summer has proved to be a time of absence and RL
hiatus for many wizards including myself (for nearly a month!) Nonetheless,
we have quite a bit to report seeing that my last truly official update was
at the end of May!
So, let's recount what our goals have been for this point in time:
February--2013-----------------------------------------------------------
- Organization, planning, coordination, commitment established
- Work Goal: Finish magic occ guild recodes by end of May 2013.
- Work Goal: New robust version of client ready by end of December 2013.
March-----2013-----------------------------------------------------------
April-----2013-----------------------------------------------------------
May-------2013-----------------------------------------------------------
- Work Complete: Magic occ guild recodes
- Work Goal: Finish remaining occ guild recodes by end of August
June------2013-----------------------------------------------------------
July------2013-----------------------------------------------------------
August----2013-----------------------------------------------------------
- Work Complete: Remaining occ guild recodes
- Work Goal: Global PvP arenas complete by end of March 2014
- Work Goal: Layman guild recodes complete by end of December 2013
With two less Admin on staff (Lavellan and Tapakah having needed to bow
out for the forseeable future) our expectations have needed to be reduced
somewhat. Even so, the Summer has produced some excellent progress. Here's
a summary ...
Over the Summer:
Game/client software design work:
- In mid-August, the amazing new Genesis Web Client was unveiled for
beta launch featuring a completely redesigned look, persistent views
of the magic map with moving location indicator in real-time,
real-time updating bars for health, mana, and fatigue, a separate
window for in-game communication, and massive customizability with
user-directed design of macros and aliases. Soon after launch, many
players instantly began to take advantage of the fact that this
client allows users to bypass firewalls and other such hazards of
the typical office workplace, and have been showing up at hours
of the day previously devoted to all-work-and-no-play (cheer!) If
you haven't seen it yet, check it out from the official website:
www.genesismud.org (and click PLAY NOW)
- Huge thanks are due to Eowul for his design and implementation work
along with Cotillion and Mercade who supplied various forms of
support and collaboration to assist where needed with game
integration.
- This is the biggest advancement in making our game newbie-friendly
since the creation of the redesigned character creation sequence
and player-tutorial years ago. Way to go, guys!
Game Improvements:
- With the new client being used daily by a seemingly steady
percentage of the playerbase, and with newbie-friendly presentation
and gameplay being one of our top goals, implementing magic map
support throughout the game has been given high priority. As a
result, the following is our updated state of mappage:
* = New Work Done
- Calia - partially mapped (Sacagawea & Gorboth)
- Cirath - COMPLETELY mapped (Serpine)
- Earthsea - unmapped (Finwe has begun work)
- Emerald - COMPLETELY mapped (Gorboth)
- Faerun - COMPLETELY mapped (Finwe)
* Gondor - partially mapped (Eowul and Gorboth)
* Shire - partially mapped (Finwe & Eowul)
* Sparkle - COMPLETELY mapped (Finwe and Gorboth)
There is still much to map, but this makes a huge difference, and
we are specifically targetting newbie-friendly and tour questing
areas.
Guild Recodes:
- I am thrilled to announce that the Morgul Mage recode has been
finished. Petros has approved the work Eowul has done in
collaboration with the guild members, and final implementation is
now in effect for the completed changes. This is an immense
accomplishment following literally years of work and consideration
on Eowul's part, and very good cooperation from wizards and mortals
on all sides. The fact that this recode could be completed with
not only basic success, but with happy wizards *and* happy guild
members proclaiming it a triumph is something I truly did not know
would be possible.
*faint*
- Petros continues to work with the results of the Alpha and Beta
test phases of the Elemental Worshippers guild, and expects to
be able to move toward completing that recode in the next months.
- Navarre (like myself) was deluged with more RL than was expected
over the Summer, but is now looking forward to returning with good
energy and eager speed to his project with the PoT recode.
- There has been no progress over the Summer with the Union, due
to Gorboth being asleep at the bottom of a deep well. Someone just
raised the bucket up, and he's being carted to the nearest pub
in a wheelbarrow to be revived. *fingers crossed*
Promotion:
- A new poster geared at marketing Genesis specifically to convention
attendees has been commissioned to be created by Denis Loubet. It
has not yet been finalized with all the necessary text, but you
can all see what it looks like on the Forum with this thread:
https://www.genesismud.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2261
As always, Denis delivers - this time depicting actual guild
characters of the Realms of Genesis. We're looking forward to
putting this up on the website soon for anyone to download,
print out, and distribute!
Taking all this in, I am deeply satisfied with the things that are taking
place with Genesis right now. A ton of important work has been done. Our
goals were high, and we haven't met them all, but the fact that we are
getting as much as this done is truly fantastic. We'll see how things
shape up by the end of Fall!
Till September's update!
G.