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Semi-Annual Update II

Solus

object oriented
Staff member
Admin
Retired Owner
Greetings Alterans!

This is our 2nd Semi-Annual Update. If you recall- our last one was posted {here}. As with the last one, this came about due to the survey I sent out in november. There were many responses, each varied. Most were critiques, a few memes, and some praise for different staff members and their jobs. We've considered them over the last month and do plan to follow a few things through, while setting some things aside on our list of priorities.

In the last 6 months, we've made outward progress. Here are some milestones:

+Update to 1.12
+Revamp of Sorrow and Frontier Landscapes
+Introduction of new lore piece- The Makani
+Addition of a new campaign- Forlorn Campaign
+Kings Law update on consent- #25
+Moderation update- War Rules
+Beasts and their Event Heads
+Completion of Storm's Landing's upper district
In the background- We've a few more projects and goals lined up for the next 6 months. But instead of hearing it from me- I'm having our Coordinators explain what they've planned, without too many spoilers, and hints in their following statements:

+Hardware/Software+

Hardware and Software statement to the masses:

As we come into the new year the server and forums will be getting some upgrades and updates. We will be improving our hardware to fix the lag issues we have encountered over the last few weeks.

The forums will also be migrating to a new upgraded server, which will allow us more access to upgrade the software and change things within the forums.

We will also be making a major re-organization of the forums that will simplify the forums we currently have as well as updating topics and improving the look. This is planned to roll out by the end of this month.

As for the server we will continue to keep everything up-to-date, including ensuring the update to 1.13 goes smoothly (Once it releases and we are able to update). There may be new plugin additions and fixing our current plugins to ensure everything works correctly.
We welcome new suggestions anyone may have going into the new year regarding plugins etc!
+In-Game Tech+

In-Game Tech Statement to the Masses:

Roads, WorldEdit Requests and Ports are all up to date as far as I am aware. If there are any leftovers that have been missed, shoot me a direct forum message and I'll see to getting it done ASAP.
I'll be checking up on regions destruction shortly after my January exam is over but I do not expect these to take too long as taking regions down is far easier than putting them up.
Current status of rent is that it is lagging behind a month or so and can be hard to maintain when folks are busy or rent isn't paid. Hoping to develop an easier system with the help of Tiberione.

Tl;Dr - Most things are good, Rent sucks (go figure.)
+Moderation+

Moderation Statement to the masses:

Moderation is quieter then most other departments, as we're only needed to step in when there are issues and usually in private. However I am moving to make some minor quality of life improvements in the back end of moderation, that should ensure fairer and quicker responses to players and make it easier to those who come after me.
+Lore+

Lore Statement to the masses:

Project To-Do's
-- Compiling server-friendly Formistry lore and selecting a new teacher
(Edit: Completed since this post was written)
-- Expansion of the Divine Magic branch
(Edit: Divine Magic Released since this post written)
-- In-Depth exploration of gem capability
-- Completing the Astronomy post that Cherry started ages back
-- Ready the netherstars (*brow waggle*)
-- Conspire with Lannis on campaign shenanigans

Hello lovlelies! There is more that I could add to this list, but I think I've spoiled enough things for one day. As well, I think most of you remember the novella I wrote when I took up the mantle of Lore Coordinator { here }. The brunt of the work is keeping afloat of the convos that come in, which takes up a good portion of my time. A lot of you guys have some great ideas, but as I get settled into Lore my biggest focus for the next six months will be dialing back on new player submissions such as cultures, languages, and beasts. My focus will trying to compile as much as I can in the intensely secret "Lore Vault" so that there will always be a reference for staff and my eventual replacement to look at. That means getting together as much old lore as I can, weaving in new lore as best as I can, and making the best transition I can for when certain lore is retired. It's a lot of work, but I really enjoy the creative aspect and hope that in the next six months I'll be able to look at the accomplishments and feel that HollowWorld's lore feels consistent and that the content remains inspiring for new and old players alike
+Events+

More detailed Events statement to the masses:

State of affairs: Party events are moving towards launch, with DMs assigned and plans for each made. Some have started already, and the rest should go soon. After most of the parties get a few events in, focus will start to transition back towards events pertaining to the main campaign plot.

Changes to the team/general structure: Events welcomes Kamaoe to the team as a DM/whatever the hell we call ourselves. She, Elz, and myself will be taking parties on their adventures for the immediate future.

Expanding the team is a work in progress that parallels a paradigm shift towards smaller-scale events. The goal is to be able to take groups out for their own stories that aren't impeded by the strain and difficulties of massive server-wide events; players should receive a more personalized experience, rather than having events that leave the majority to watch as a few interact with overcrowded DMs. Ideally, having a system of DMs will allow content to come out at a more stable pace as well.

Plot Recap: The last major occurrence was the villain of the story revealing himself and claiming that he has a weapon to slay gods. Despite his offers of contact, nothing yet has been heard from him, but in his absence more Blessed have bloomed. Artifacts have been bequeathed to some the faithful, with rumors of greater powers yet to come.
Events and Lore were the heaviest concerns on the survey. As Lore is building up, I'd like to address Events as, yes, we are continuing the Incursion Campaign to complete it. This has been a long term Campaign with different Arcs to it, can't deny that. Objective here is to make a worthwhile storyline for those who actively take part. What some players prefer in taste is just up to them and I know there've been plenty of criticisms. I'm not going to feign we cater to every thread demanding something or every critique, but we built on what we can do moving forward.

With concern on players not enjoying certain aspects of the main campaign, or overall not taking part in the main campaign for some reason or other- we've tried to balance it by:

+Introducing a second Campaign: Forlorn, which is currently on hold, in response to juggling main server events during a haitus on the main Campaign Arcs. There have also been shorter events that either introduce new pieces of lore information or are focused on player interactions and responses for fun.

+Spawn has also picked up in pursuing eventful roleplay {See more on next topic}​

CALENDAR EDITION!!

When you create an events thread, you can now add it to the {Calendar Page}. You must first create an events thread. Then go to the upper right hand corner of the thread post:
Thread Tools > Calendar Add

It will show up on the calendar with it's tag enabled.



(Thanks Jazzper for your silent volunteering as an example)
This option is available to all players. If anyone abuses the Calendar option to troll, harass, or otherwise cause problems, we will put you on the blacklist for using that option, or take severe measures depending on the case.

Enjoy!

+Spawn+

One of the main points I picked up from the November Survey, and something I was already planning, was to halt build production on Spawn. There's a lot of space we have now- a noble district, slums, tavern, farmland, sewers, large docks- But not enough roleplay occurs here. Our focus for the next few months will be just that- Once the Cathedral is built, we'll not be making anymore major builds and will promote RP in SL. We want to allow players to host their own events and our team, namely Kam and Sankera, have made it their initiative to pull in different types of roleplay for the builds and surrounding area of Storm's Landing.

If you'd like to help them in any way, please contact them!

{Piety Campaign}

+Media+

Media's statement to the masses:

Media's goal lately has been to update and preserve. We have been looking into updating accounts, and reviewing to make sure all our accounts across various sites point to the correct places. This includes cleaning up old accounts we no longer have access to, as well as making new accounts to store forum images from tutorials and guides to avoid the loss of content.

For upcoming projects we will be looking at collapsing newsletters into quarterly releases, to avoid newsletters frequently repeating the same information we will go to fewer updates with more content.

Media Council will be closing since we have not been able to find active members. Player submissions are still welcome and needed but the positions of media council will be closing. With this video production will likely not be returning in any major form, as difficulties with getting reliable content produced has proved a systemic issue across various individuals and teams. Similarly region highlight as pointed out in previous threads won't be returning due to lack of player involvement, we got three submissions last time, with only one coming from the playerbase at large, the other two being either Media team or staff submissions.
+General+

As many know, we've gone through a few forum changes. We've migrated to a forum host where we can directly add new add-ons for xenforo, The migration is still occurring for the rest of the week! Another is a forum restructure. This project will entail easier formatting of the forums, reachable guides, and an overhaul of all old posts to make the forums 2018 friendly. I believe many of us have seen posts as old as 2013 in our guides and can see the need for us to do so. NIAH Tiberione and Lady Alec have discussed changes moving forward and we hope to show progress soon. Some features I hope we get to utilize in a new forum structure is additions of forum plugins like an event calendar!

We've also been having an upgrade to our server and price changes. Our current setup is about $140 per month. With the purchase of a new VPS to set up for the forum migration, we've had to add in additional $40 considering need for backup storage. We're also looking into updating our Hardware/Software, and our overall goal has been cut down to around $120. The reason for a new server upgrade is because many players get randomly kicked out of the server. Our CPU usage has been on high of 100%, which is not great. You'll soon start to see the ends of the upcoming change in the coming few weeks.

Here, I'd like to thank cherbert and Tiberione with their work on migrating the forums. It's a lot of hard work to have things prepared and set up in a short amount of time, and something those before me had to set aside as other things were more urgent. But with time, and with help, we've managed to make it possible. Don't forget to thank Cherbert immensely for keeping the forums running so we can enjoy taking part in this community and to Tiberione for helping in upgrades for new additions and more.

And do thank your Staff Members for the work they've put in the past months and weeks to come!

+Donations+

Compared to the prior 6 months, the current 6 months have gone better. Summer donations helped us move forward in pursuing plugin updates and at the current time, with Tiberione 's help, I've already looked into our server's hardware and software upgrade, too. We've accumulated around $1960 from the summer, and after calculating things with our current expenses, we're doing well in server upkeep. Starting February, our upkeep payment is still going to be around $140. But now we've spread out the expenses enough to be up-to-date on forums and the server.

Donation Addition!
In order to promote more donations, we've chosen to add in another colorful rank with the same perms as Hero, with the addition of extra titles and a brighter colored rank. We've more in store in the coming months, but we'll be slowly adding them in instead of all at once. Thanks to NIAH !

[ B L E S S E D ] $40
additional titles include:

  • Exalted
  • Revered
  • Blessed
  • Cleric
  • Curate
  • Rector
  • Minister
  • Touched
  • Ardent
  • Devout
  • Convert
  • Steadfast
  • Devoted
  • Fanatic
  • Staunch
  • Stalwart
Here, I'd like to shout-out to our donators again- without you guys, I wouldn't be able to run this server and we wouldn't be here if it weren't for that. Everyone being able to login, create lore, events, build their own towns or cottages- and most of all roleplay- wouldn't be able to do so without you guys. Thank you! Maintaining your support in donations will help us cover costs in the coming months, so please do continue to contribute if you wish it!

Some of you listed had a secret donator:

NIAH
The Tottot
Ruukasu Lawliet
Vincentius
TyoungBD
Bean/Benijim
The Roman Emporer
Centurion
Solar
Ryu
Arcana
Narvendel
Elt
Icanra
Ayda
Boudicca
RexJen
FrostGuardian
Mapboy
BrianAT16
MeowCow_
MelodyComplex
GrimReaper
Raal
Treeboy
HoneyRecord
Mitch
PitaChipBoi
Smurf
BoredBrit
SirLuamTehDoge
Wandering Ranger
Scardrac
godfather1
Bitann
Sankera
Old-Seadog
Spooksy_
Samiwashere
UmbraSicarius
Paint
ToastySpam
Tohm
Tiberione
Cymic_
LeftwardElk
@coffeeceebus
Sybbyl
Ozzy
Electric
Charybdis
Baron2537
overlord2304
Morbid
Shankster
Old_Gromm
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Baron

Sovereign
Retired Staff
You're paying way too much in upkeep. Who's your host? What are the specs you're paying for?
 
D

Dark Auras

Guest
You're paying way too much in upkeep. Who's your host? What are the specs you're paying for?
$120 for a dedicated server and web server is a good price. We are using OVH for hosting, it does not come much cheaper than that. Without too much detail I will say our specs are good on both our web and game servers.
Additional note our costs should decrease slightly with the new hardware we are getting.
 

Baron

Sovereign
Retired Staff
$120 for a dedicated server and web server is a good price. We are using OVH for hosting, it does not come much cheaper than that. Without too much detail I will say our specs are good on both our web and game servers.
Additional note our costs should decrease slightly with the new hardware we are getting.
So it's the EG-32 or the HOST-32H then? I'm pretty sure I'm the one that recommended OVH to Readij.

You could probably run both game and web on the same device, if it wasn't an Eggs-In-Basket situation.
 
D

Dark Auras

Guest
So it's the EG-32 or the HOST-32H then? I'm pretty sure I'm the one that recommended OVH to Readij.

You could probably run both game and web on the same device, if it wasn't an Eggs-In-Basket situation.
OVH Game servers specifically. I prefer to use their game-specific Anti-DDOS networks.
As for hosting server/website in one, the costs aren't enormously high to host the website and yes, too many eggs in one basket situation. Rather all resources go to Minecraft server than split between.

Also worth noting that we're not moved onto new hardware yet. This will be coming soon however!
 

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
It's great to see the members of the staff each telling about their field of expertise and what they are doing. This looks very professional and still friendly and easy to read. Amazing thread!
 
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