Lore Review - January 2016

[Faelin]

Hello and welcome to a quick and dirty 'six months in review' from your local Lore department!

When I say quick, I mean it! This thread is intended to provide you guys with a speedy run-down of achieved aims and future ones for the year ahead. I wasn't joking. This is going to be fast.

Here we go on achievements in the last six months:

> Opened a new Prospectus of Aims
> Reorganised the Official Lore section
> Revamped the Staff and Council Lore subforums
> Cleaned and sorted the Staff and Council archives
> Relaunched a new IC Research system
> Reopened Lore Submissions
> Opened a public Update Log
> Established base Magic mechanics
> Moved Earthspawn to Legacy Races
> Wrote and published Legacy Race registers
> Opened a survey to gauge opinions on Core Races*
> Received our first successful Culture Submission under the new system (the Moor Elves)
> Wrote and published all Alteran Flora and Fauna lore
> Wrote and published Fearsome Beasts lore for Altera and the Nether
> Wrote and published lore on Alteran Materials
> Wrote and published lore on Netherish Materials
> Wrote and published lore on Alteran Sciences
> Wrote and published lore on Alteran Technology
> Wrote and published lore on Dragons (with two artwork commissions!)
> Compiled lore on the Corruption

Now, here's the blooper reel of blunders and other things.

> *Core Race survey flopped after Survey Monkey cut off after 100 replies

"The Fix" - I intend to relaunch the same survey to get a more up-to-date sample of opinion, this time with advanced warning of the 100 response cap so I don't feel sketchy about losing the other responses. ​

> Almost made 'skyrats' the canon justification for pigeons
> Discovered an oddly named item called "The Sluggish Hoe"
> Swore on pain of death to banish Purpur from Altera forever
> Decided that lore on Dyed Sheep was probably surplus to requirements

Aaaand here we go on aims for the next six months.

> Complete and release general guides on:

- The World of Altera
- Other Worlds
- The Time Lock
- Time and Ageing
- Death, Revivals, and the Afterlife​

> Complete and release public Magic lore
> Compile and release Ender lore
> Write and release Redstone Tinkering lore
> Relaunch Core Race survey
> Open Artwork Commission for [Redacted~]
> Many, many more Artwork Commissions
> Number of other minor threads

As ever, a big thanks for everyone's patience, and let's look forward to another six months of lore releases, commissions, surveys, and updates.

And, of course, a very Happy New Year!

 

[Sankera]

> Swore on pain of death to banish Purpur from Altera forever!

But Cherry! It could be oh so nice and good looking in Conquest

 

[Faelin]

But Cherry! It could be oh so nice and good looking in Conquest

Sankera.

It is called purpur.

I cannot. It cannot ever come to this.

 

[Sankera]

Sankera.

It is called purpur.

I cannot. It cannot ever come to this.

I will call my first born purpur if I have to prove the point that it can be loved.

 

[Azur]

> Discovered an oddly named item called "The Sluggish Hoe"

Some hoes just aren't in their prime.

 

[Faelin]

Some hoes just aren't in their prime.

Dunno, man, I wouldn't know.

 

[Ray1333]

> *Core Race survey flopped after Survey Monkey cut off after 100 replies

"The Fix" - I intend to relaunch the same survey to get a more up-to-date sample of opinion, this time with advanced warning of the 100 response cap so I don't feel sketchy about losing the other responses.​

​

If I may ask, what was the general trend of these 100 responses?

 

[Teeke]

Yay lore!

I am indifferent towards purpur. It's just one of these crap extras like andesite, or.... Whatever that other rock is.
Why's it even matter what the lore is? "These are all differently colored rocks. The end."

I'm looking forward to the aging, death, revival, afterlife info.

Sluggish Hoes are Hoes that are covered in slugs. Very slimy.

 

[Immerael]

Actually I will once again come to poor ugly as sin Purpur's defense as I don't like denying folks resources to build with. Almost everyone uses a texture pack of some kind which completely does away with it's base texture. The name is dumb but so is the naming of a lot of things. It can be remodeled to provide something else that looks great. It can even make stairs which is a big building block for roofs and crap ton of stuff.

As for the reason so far all I've heard from the numerous folks I've debated about it are "its ugly as sin and has a dumb name so no one should be able to play with it because I and a bunch of others thinks so." There are lots of what I consider ugly builds already on the server, and I'm sure more than a few folks consider my own towns and builds ugly too. That's fine. Its your opinion on how something looks. I think cobblestone regardless of texture pack I've played in is one of the ugliest blocks in existence. Yet I don't think no one should be able to build with it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and views on how they want to build. What I don't think anyone should be able to do is "You can't build with this because I think its dumb, ugly and wrong so I won't let you have it."

I also have grave concerns about this aging and time lore but seeing as I don't know anything about it yet I won't go into details. As for the rest I'm more or less pleased with it being on the board.

 

[Solus]

The grand thing is- purpur is found in the End realm- so there's literally no reason for it to be a building block in Altera as we don't use those blocks as building material. As much as I love Conquest- we can make do.

 

[Faelin]

If I may ask, what was the general trend of these 100 responses?

Nothing particularly shocking, but even so I'd rather not say on the basis that it was a smaller sample than intended, so a lot of people's opinions were unknowingly cut out by the site. The results of the new survey (featuring the same questions) will be published entirely, however.

(On purpur)

I should mention, there are actually valid reasons IC why purpur would not be attainable on the main map or from any others. It happens to be the case that a few people do utterly despise it, but if we'd have thought it was a beautiful block beautifully named, we'd still have needed to cut it out of use in the main world.

I won't go into too much detail, because there will be a thread to explain this, but it essentially comes from the fact that 'materials' in the End (otherwise known as the Planar Infinity) are not really materials at all. There are very few exceptions that can cross into the physical plane, and there are specific reasons for these. However, people cannot, for example, build with Endstone. Even if, somehow, it were attainable in survival, it could not (lore-wise) be brought into Altera's plane of existence.

I also have grave concerns about this aging and time lore but seeing as I don't know anything about it yet I won't go into details.

The policy with the Time and Ageing business is to explain and clarify the current state of play, not to drastically alter it. Hopefully that's some comfort!

 

[Jstar]

The policy with the Time and Ageing business is to explain and clarify the current state of play, not to drastically alter it. Hopefully that's some comfort!

*Hisses quietly from a dark corner*

 

[Immerael]

Again with limiting us out of the end before 1.9 launches you were only really restricting us access to a lore problematic dragon fight and the egg and endstone. However once 1.9 launches there will be a great deal of things in the End. A whole new area to explore that we are from what its looking like won't allow our players to go to because its problematic. I think a solution could be found that while yes harder than a simple "We don't need no End" is better for the server as a whole. Restriction from what will eventually be an entire zone comparable to the Nether is not good imo and much worse than restricting players from a boss fight.

As for the time lore bit that is a little comforting but I'll wait to see.

The point I'm getting at is if I want to explore and do stuff in the End and especially the new End when it launches I will have to either single player or go somewhere else to do so. Is that what we want to encourage on the server?

 

[_Jaylor_]

Remember, next time you want, nay, NEED little bits of lore explained in a silly blurb, think of _Jaylor_

 

[Sankera]

However, people cannot, for example, build with Endstone. Even if, somehow, it were attainable in survival, it could not (lore-wise) be brought into Altera's plane of existence.

*nervous laughter* I'll keep it as an OOC item for fun then

 

[Heie]

Work done by lore team is much appreciated!

 

[Azur]

The point I'm getting at is if I want to explore and do stuff in the End and especially the new End when it launches I will have to either single player or go somewhere else to do so. Is that what we want to encourage on the server?

Hollowworld is an RP server, that is around for the purpose of RPing and all that good stuff. Not only that, but the End has already been established before as a "no-go" zone in lore, as it's the Planar Infinity. To be fair, if you really wanted to explore and do stuff in the End, I'd imagine that is what you're expected to do. Explore it on your own, or something along those lines.

 

[Somnastra]

I will call my first born purpur if I have to prove the point that it can be loved.

I think this is now going to be a banable offense.

I also have grave concerns about this aging and time lore but seeing as I don't know anything about it yet I won't go into details. As for the rest I'm more or less pleased with it being on the board.

Yes, we share that. Cherry's aware of my sentiments, so there's that~

The point I'm getting at is if I want to explore and do stuff in the End and especially the new End when it launches I will have to either single player or go somewhere else to do so. Is that what we want to encourage on the server?

A couple of things - while we do have to update our lore with every MC version, we shouldn't have to drastically do so. We've made the End a plane which human beings (and other races) cannot bodily go. There certainly may be instances in the future where we allow folks to explore it for a limited time (this is not foreshadowing or a promise, simply a "it's possible"), but we are not going to change the fundamental underpinnings of the world. Right now, that means no End.

As for the new items, we'll see. I haven't spoken to Cherry about it yet, but it's possible that some could get awarded based on ... things, I dunno. As I said, not planned, but also not terribly high on our priority list, as we're not even to 1.9 on the server yet, so we don't even have the vanilla stuff yet.

 

[_Jaylor_]

Remember, when you think of quick BS explanations of stuff, think _Jaylor_

 

[Faelin]

Remember, when you think of quick BS explanations of stuff, think _Jaylor_

I like this one too.