Wossoo
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Posts posted by Wossoo
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Hey Everyone!
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=kfVsfOSbJY0
As you may have noticed, the weekly news has now moved to a Friday. In the past, Thursdays were the best time because Johan could deal with feedback on the Friday after the news came out. Now, however, I am much more available to do that on weekends rather than Fridays. It also gives the developers an extra day to submit news for the week!
Sorry this was unannounced. I meant to mention it last week!
This week the developers have been scaling back development in time for the Easter Holidays but there have still been things going on behind the scenes with feature implementations and tweaks. There are no major feature announcements today.
Without too much delay, here's the news...
Elevation Trader Reimbursements
As everyone is aware, the reset for the Elevation server is fast approaching. To facilitate the transition players are now able to request reimbursement for traders that they own using the in-game /support reporting system. These traders will be removed and reimbursed at a value of 20 silver coins each.
To qualify for reimbursement a trader must either:
- Be located on a deed (Reimbursement to Mayor or designated alternate)
- Be located within a house (Reimbursement to Writholder or designated alternate)
- Traders not meeting either of the 2 above requirements are not qualified for reimbursement.
Players will have until April 8th to make claims after which all traders will be removed from the server.
Original thread for this can be found here.
Elevation Map Under Construction
One of the tasks the development team have been working on is the new map for Elevation.
I don't have any detailed information yet but as mentioned previously it is planned to include a central landmass with smaller islands near the borders with the existing home servers.
Don't forget that "small islands" in this case could turn out to be pretty big relative to what players are used to on Elevation.
War Machines Implemented
After an initial introduction on the Challenge servers, the Trebuchet, Ballista, Siege Shield, Spike Barrier, Magical Turrets and Archery towers were implemented on all servers, although the towers do not attack enemies (except KoS players on PvP servers).
There were a few issues to begin with whereby players were able to block each other using siege shields on the PvE servers, although they should now be easier to push and pull to avoid this. The game rules were amended to make it very clear that it is against the rules to "block access to deeds, merchants, or structures not belonging to you" or to "intentionally create player traps", using siege shields or any other method, on the Freedom cluster (excluding Chaos).
Initial feedback showed that the trebuchet was overpowered at first so there is now a delay in firing it to make it more reasonable.
Xanadu and Chaos Map Dump Progress
We are hoping to use various methods of distributing the fresh map dumps of Xanadu and Chaos soon. Our primary distribution will be in the form of a Google Maps style interface as part of the Wurm site, possibly even with map markers for the start deeds etc. and the potential for more information to be added over time. Many thanks to Mamadarkness and MaxC for working on this over the past week!
We also expect that some players will want to be able to download the image file itself for use in community maps, or to re-host on their own servers, or to view offline. We hope to make the map dumps freely available as torrents. If you have a specific need for the raw file (to make a community map, or to re-host it on your own servers) you may also message me once they are released and I will send you instructions on downloading the raw image file.
A direct download link on our own site would be our favourite option but at the moment there's no way we would have enough bandwidth. The files are pretty big indeed!
Bridge Debugging Continues
There is not much to say about bridges right now other than they are coming along nicely and debugging is going very well. We still expect that they will be released in mid-April for all to enjoy!
Bridges still very much under construction! Click for a larger version.
Successful Treasure Hunt
Congratulations to all who took part in the latest Game Master organised treasure hunt which took part on the Exodus server last Saturday. The turnout was really great and I hear it was well organised so good job all round!
I also heard that some people enjoyed exploring a new server they had never been on much, or at all, before even if they didn't win one of the big prizes so that's great to hear.
Stay tuned for future treasure hunts on other servers and in different timezones!
PR Team is Recruiting
Would you like to help write the weekly news, publicise Wurm, maintain our social media pages and much more?
Consider volunteering as a Public Relations Assistant! You can find the full recruitment thread here. There is no closing date but I expect to start appointing people within the next week or two.
Happy Easter
And last, but by no means least, Happy Easter Wurmians!
Whether you celebrate Easter the traditional way or you just want the excuse to eat tons of chocolate, or whether you don't celebrate it at all, we hope you have a great weekend.
That's all for this week,
Happy Wurming! -
Sorry to be bumping an old topic but this seemed like the best place to ask this..Since Retrograde is the new PR community relations guy what is it exactly that you will be doing now Wossoo? Is he replacing you? It sounds like he will be doing the heaving lifting so to speak so i just am confused as to what your new role is meant to be now.Also there is a recruitment thread for even more new PR guys wanted so what are the plans that you need so many people involved? Maybe you could take some time and let the community know what your goals/plans are and how you intend on setting things up?The Community Management position is separate from the PR Team and is to do with feedback and response between the developers and players, both ways.
PR is still mainly about making news posts, and other announcements on behalf of the team, on forums, social media, website, etc.
Not having responsibility for feedback etc. now means that I can focus on other things including issuing press releases, and generating some external publicity for Wurm on blogs, magazines, etc, including the possibility of some advertising and marketing functions.
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Just to update this thread a bit and we have had some applications so far but I would urge anyone interested to apply.
You don't necessarily need experience doing this type of thing but the ability to write well and be generally likeable is a great start
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I have been out campaigning with my local Labour candidate every weekend since January and from tomorrow this will increase to every day where I will be coordinating his weekday campaigning...
No points for guessing where I stand in this election
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The ideal candidate doesn't need to be an expert, but they should know pretty much what features Wurm has overall and what you can do in the game...
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UPDATE: APPLICATIONS CLOSE 15th APRIL
Hey Everyone!
The PR Team is recruiting!
I am looking to recruit a few more Public Relations Assistants to help me in my work as PR Officer. This is an excellent opportunity to gain some basic experience in PR and volunteer some of your time, as many others are doing, to help make sure Wurm is the best it can be.PR Assistants are expected to help the PR Officer to:
· Gather news from developers and the wider team and draft weekly news updates,
· Monitor and operate social media accounts, including Facebook and Twitter,
· Draft press releases and identify press contacts,
· Develop, improve and protect Wurm’s reputation and brand,
· Distribute concrete and reliable information in the event of a crisis.
Obviously these are not easy tasks so there are some basic requirements for the role.
The ideal PRA is:· A confident communicator with a good standard of written English,
· Mature enough to be trusted with protecting Wurm’s reputation,
· Knowledgeable about Wurm, including aspects of gameplay and a general understanding of our team structure,
· Flexible and active, with the ability to act quickly at short notice to deal with unexpected problems and announcements,
· Able to use the forums, IRC, email, in-game chat, social media, etc.,
· Able to use discretion, confidentiality, and impartiality,
· Over the age of 18.
If you are interested in applying to be a PRA, please send an application explaining how you fit the role by email to ross@wurmonline.com.
Existing members of the team have no special advantage so do not be put off from applying if you are not already a volunteer.
Successful candidates will be subject to in-depth security checks (past game/forum/chat warns, mutes, bans, etc.) by the moderation team so bear this in mind.
Please note this role is entirely voluntary and successful candidates must return a volunteer agreement.
Hopefully I haven’t put anyone off, and I look forward to seeing your applications!
Good luck,
Wossoo.
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That looks like great fun, those Ford Puma's are fun to drive on roads, I can only imagine what they'd be like on gravel and dirt!
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3 AM for the Treasure Hunt start ? Is that correct ?
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Hey Everyone!
The team has been working very hard this week to make sure that bridges are as good as they can be before their release in mid-April so there are no major gameplay announcements. The art developers have been working on some snazzy new weapon models (see below) too!
I can also reveal that we now have a Community Manager in the form of Retrograde who will be the main link between the community and the developers and handle feedback, suggestions and more. We wish him the very best of luck in the role.And with that said, here's the news in full!
New Community Manager
We are pleased to announce that Retrograde will be stepping into the new role of Community Manager and will be working with you all on the forums and in-game.
In his new role he will act as a link between you and the development team to discuss suggestions and changes, collect feedback, and provide feedback from the developers when possible. You'll also see him in-game from time to time and in IRC so don't hesitate to drop by and say hi!Map Dumps
By popular demand, I asked the developers about the possibility of a fresh set of map dumps for all servers. Each map dump takes some time to produce so we are aiming to release approximately two per week until all servers have been covered.
So far I have been provided with fresh map dumps for Xanadu and Chaos. I expect to release the map dump for Xanadu as soon as we find a reliable place to host it. The maps are very large files and so this is a lot easier said than done!
Releasing the map dump of Chaos is still under discussion because it is a PvP server and some people there may want to remain hidden in the fog of war. However, I am also aware of recent forum polls which show overwhelming support for a map dump. Either way, I'd appreciate feedback on this from Chaos!
Here is a preview of the Xanadu map dump. The full quality dump is more than ten times higher resolution than the preview.
Bridge Progress
Continuing our recent pattern, the developers have spent most of this week working on straightening out a few stubborn bridge-related bugs here and there. Just to give you a flavour, one of the bugs this week involved players teleporting to ground floors when they entered buildings from a bridge while on a cart or horseback, and some other minor bugs related to mounting and dismounting on bridges.
We are still confident that these kinks will be worked out very soon and bridges are on track to be released in the spring update in mid-April.
New Weapon Models
The Art developers have been working hard on new models for various weapons. Progress is coming along extremely well on the new small maul (pictured below). They're also working on updated models for the medium maul, and axes.
Treasure Hunt
On Saturday 28th March, the Game Masters' monthly treasure hunt will begin at approximately 03:00 (am) GMT at Esert, the starter deed on the Exodus server.
There are a number of valuable prizes to be won by being one of the first to solve the treasure hunt and we're sure it's going to be a lot of fun!
Further information and clues, once released, can be found in this thread.
That's all for this week,
Happy Wurming!
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Back to the not-so-good old PR system, run by the same guy as before, Shocking..
Edit: He did say he was putting his own spin on things, guess unreliability and inconsistency is his thing, like being awesome was Johans
News day is Thursday. Is it Friday yet? I don't think so.
Be patient!
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I should also add that the total number of premium accounts did not significantly spike during the week of the vote, but fluctuated between around 230 - 247. The population of Elevation does not make a turnout of 250 too much of a surprise.
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A lot of people are bringing into question the validity of the poll, however the poll was just one of a range of factors which were considered before the reset was decided.
I would also point out that even if half of the people who voted Yes were not from Elevation and their votes were excluded, the result would still have been 52.4% in favour of a reset (86 Yes, 78 No), which is still a majority. Even with half the yes votes gone and none of the no votes. We would be making the vast assumption that every single person who voted No actively plays on Elevation, too.
To be honest I don't think a reset of Elevation just affects that server anyway, since it affects the whole Epic cluster that includes the three home servers. -
What changes? Only the map? Do you really expect that simply resetting the map will keep the ("big majority of") people happy for more than a month?
I don't like quoting myself but since you quoted me a few times, I did directly cover this in the announcement. Namely,
"I am certain it will not be the only change to Epic which will be used to improve overall gameplay, but it is certainly a critical step towards breathing new life into the server."
The reset of the Elevation server is the big news which people need to start preparing for first of all, and after the poll a lot of people were very anxious to hear as soon as possible after a decision on a reset was reached.
We are still looking at feedback we have received over the past few weeks and any feedback presented in this thread about changes that can or should be made to the Epic cluster more generally, in order to make it better for everyone who plays there or who might want to play there.
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Hey Everyone!
Our big news this week is that we are planning a major Spring Update which will be released in mid-April. It will involve the introduction of a long-awaited new feature (bridges!) and will involve a very big change to the Epic cluster.
While everyone loves new features like bridges, provided they don't kill us, from time to time we have to make very important but difficult or controversial changes which we believe will make the game better. Two weeks ago we started a poll on the Elevation server which aimed to find out what premium players there think about a map reset. A very high number of players turned out to cast their vote in that poll. Overall, the results for that poll were strongly in favour of a reset of the Elevation map, with 68.8% of the players voting yes.
Over the past week the developers have been thinking hard about what to do to make Epic better, paying close attention to the excellent feedback we have received over the past few weeks. After very careful consideration, we made the decision to shut down the Elevation server and replace it with a bigger, better map. Primarily we believe that, along with this being what most on Elevation want to happen, this will be a great step towards re-invigorating the Epic cluster.
And without too much further ado, here's the news in full!
Spring Update
We will be releasing a Spring Update in mid-April which will affect two key areas of the game, including the introduction of a long-awaited new feature (bridges) and some big changes to the Epic cluster.
Bridges
Everyone that has tried the bridge testing server has seen that developers are being relentless in their pursuit of coding bridges. This week the story is no different, but the end is in sight! Bridges are now scheduled for release in mid-April as part of the Spring Update! Go team!
It would have been easy to release bridges much earlier, but to do that we would have had to cut corners and make boring bridges that had to be level, or could only be made out of one material, or only one width option... but where is the challenge in that? Instead, they have been working very hard to develop a wide variety of bridge types, from wood to stone, marble and rope. We have every taste covered!
And it doesn't stop there - they can also be constructed at different widths, and can be built on slopes as ramps, or even between buildings and/or the terrain around them. Truly, if variety is the spice of life, then bridges may be pretty hot!
Obviously with more variety comes more opportunity for things to go a little bit wrong. However, do not fear! We in the PR team made some of our own on test, tapped our feet on the edge of one mighty construction, and shuffled to the middle in hope it would hold. Truth is, to our everlasting relief, they do!
Here is a screenshot of a marble bridge:
Elevation Reset
The second major change which will take place with the Spring Update will take place on the Epic cluster. The central PvP server, Elevation, will be shut down on April 13th and a newer, bigger, and much better server will go live to replace it very soon after.
For the full announcement of this please check this thread.
We are confident that the new map will be an opportunity. We believe this will be true for new players, veterans that have hung up their hats and of course those currently playing there. We hope that everyone who plays Wurm feels encouraged and welcomed to join a new and improved Epic. Not only will there be much more space to build your home, but also to help make it a vibrant community. New maps, as we have seen on challenge, can be hand moulded now by the developers. And they will give their best effort to try make it their best map so far!
Further Details:
- Map size will be increased to be equal to the Independence and Chaos servers on the Freedom cluster.
- The map will take advantage of a central landmass with outlying border islands near the existing home servers Desertion, Affliction and Serenity.
- Deed costs and unused upkeep will be refunded to mayors, and traders on deeds will be automatically refunded for 20 silver each.
- Refunds for off-deed traders may be possible if we can establish who owns them.
- Trader planting has been disabled for now.
- Skills and inventories of players will be unaffected by this map-only reset.
- All items on the ground, in containers, in buildings, etc as well as all constructions on the map will be removed when the server is closed. You will also keep anything you have in the bank including money, and also your mail.
- All players will be moved to the new start deed for their respective kingdoms, and kingdom leaders will remain the same.
- PMK disbanding will be disabled until their new capitals have been established.
- The server will be accessible to premium and non-premium accounts alike, however non-premium accounts will not be able to spawn on the central island.
In other news...
Treasure Hunt
Do you fancy yourself a super sleuth? This month's treasure hunt, organised by our most excellent Game Masters, is scheduled to begin on March 28th, on the Exodus server.
They plan to give away up to 15 prizes to the first people to solve the clues they will be posting in this thread. You can also find more information about the treasure hunt there.Valrei map
The in-game Valrei map has been coming along nicely. Please note it is a work in progress at the moment and some icons are not yet visible!
Valrei Demigods
One of the perks of Epic has for a long time been that you can become a god through winning scenario items from your god.
Recently we have seen two new demigods emerge - Tosiek and Nahjo. On behalf of the team we would like to congratulate those players! And ofcourse Nathan who has been demigod a while now. Lots of players have put effort in the missions and some of those are lucky enough to get rewarded through Valrei items or the keys to Valrei itself.
Demigods have been balanced a little relative to the real gods. After all, they should be less powerful than real gods right?
Friendship Management
To facilitate the new permissions changes announced in Week 9, you may now organise your friends into different categories.
You may do this by right-clicking your body and using the new menu option 'Manage Friends'. You may also add and accept remote friend requests from this new window.
(thanks for the Screenshot Atazoth (and friends!))
Wall Rotation
Walls can be rotated now for your convenience. Cant really embellish it more than call it an embellishment itself! Also, the ability to rotate floors will come soonâ„¢!
That's all for this week,
I'm not Johan so I wont say... Keep on Wurming!
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For some time there has been discussion and a general feeling that the Epic cluster needs some changes in order to breathe new life into it. Over the past few weeks we have invited everyone, especially those who play on Epic, to provide feedback and suggestions on ways we can improve it.
One piece of regular feedback we received was a feeling that the map for the central PvP server, Elevation, should be reset and this would be one step towards making Epic a much better experience in the long term for everyone who plays there now, in the past, and, ultimately, in the future. Last week we conducted a poll on Elevation which asked premium players how they feel about a possible reset of that server. A large number of players turned out to have their say. The final result was 68.8% in favour of a map reset, a big majority.
Since then, the developers have been thinking very carefully about a possible reset. While the poll on Elevation was not binding on us, it did let us know that most players there would view a reset favourably. Taking this into consideration, and a range of other factors, we decided that the best course of action would be to reset the server and make a few changes to it at the same time. This decision was not reached lightly as we know the huge effect this has on many players.The current plan is as follows:
- Elevation will be shut down for the last time on April 13th.
A brand new map will be opened in its place as soon as possible afterwards. Our current aim is 15th April or before.
- Desertion, Serenity and Affliction will be unaffected.
- The new map will be bigger than the current Elevation server, in fact it will be equal to Chaos on the Freedom cluster. It will involve a large central island with further islands near the home server borders.
- Deed costs and unused upkeep will be refunded to mayors. On-deed traders will be refunded for 20 silver each. We will try to assess the ownership of off-deed traders to decide on who should get refunds for those. For now all trader planting has been disabled in light of this.
- Skills and player personal inventories will be completely unaffected by this, as well as bank accounts and unopened mail. However, the map will be removed so this means all terrain modifications, structures, ground items, containers and creatures will be removed permanently. Over the coming month we urge players to take full advantage of their home servers for storage purposes if necessary, as they will remain as they are.
- Once the new server is opened, all players will enter the game at the new starter towns for their kingdoms if they were on Elevation when it is shut down. All kingdom leaders will remain the same, however PMK disbanding will be disabled until their new capitals have been made.
- Finally, the new server and map will be open to both premium and non-premium players alike. To reduce the possibility of abuse of free characters, they will not be able to spawn on the central island - only outlying border islands near their kingdom start deeds.
I understand that this may not be the decision that some of you wanted. I completely understand that many players have invested a lot of time on Elevation through the construction of amazing deeds, some of which I personally had the privilege to (allegedly not) help build! *cough* Zerus *cough*
Seriously though, the developers made their decision only after very careful consideration, that this was the right way to go on this. I am certain it will not be the only change to Epic which will be used to improve overall gameplay, but it is certainly a critical step towards breathing new life into the server.
I hope to organise or inspire some sort of event to celebrate the years of fun we've had with Elevation. Perhaps a screenshot competition? Best stories? Let me know what you think!
I will be reading all constructive feedback and responding to as much of it as possible. You can also send feedback to me through forum PMs or by email to ross@wurmonline.com - Elevation will be shut down for the last time on April 13th.
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We are currently verifying/checking the poll results and will release them soon.
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I'd tell them "stop interrupting me while I am trying to work".
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So bridges eta is just we making progresss again
Yep, which is definitely a good thing.
At the moment there are a list of bugs which is being eliminated one by one. I think most of us would agree that it is best we have these bugs eliminated at this stage than end up dealing with them in-game!
It is not possible right now to give a good estimate as to when they will all be fixed.
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Welcome back Wossoo, any news on boats?
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Kinda disappointed, was expecting the 'new guy' put their own spin on the weekly updates, this just feels like a copy of Johans works :/
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Welcome back, Wossoo!
Love the new walls, but some time ago we have been promised a few nice things, and I'm specifically thinking of the bird cage, which would look awesome in our new houses with new furniture in. Any idea what happened to them? And with the black sheep?
And while I'm looking forward to see the new banners in game, I have another question - will freedomers ever have a choice of a different color than that green? it is nice, but with so much grass and trees and .. green stuff around, our world isn't as colourful as it could be
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Nice
And what about posting in news on launcher start screen? Would be very kind of you.
News Update: Work and Progress. Week 14
in City Hall
Posted
This week was a slow week for developer news but the map dumps information is new and has not been posted before.
I think all of the other weekly news has something new in there, but I think recapping is good too. Some weeks like this week I have to recap a lot more than others.