Best Of

Re: Absence Thread

Work is sending me to Japan for work and I am following that up with vacation. So starting next week I will likely be largely absent and on the opposite from my normal times if I am here.

I shall see everyone in a month or so at that point. Huzzah, first vacation in years.

Malayn

6

Re: Descriptions: From Divines to Mortals, and Beasts, and Items, and Mobs, and Places!

Following a request from a player who wishes to remain anonymous, please enjoy the modern iteration of Malmydia's Hamadhi outfit, inspired by traditional/mythological hanfu:

She is wearing:
a gilded hairpin dripping with menace that shimmers in a haze of translucent fog, plunged through Her bun to keep it tidy as its sharpened edge gleams maliciously where it pokes out the other side
heeled slippers of grey silk which are barely seen beneath Her robes
multilayered robes in woundwort hues that are fastidiously clean; nary a thread out of place as She carries Herself with the stature and grace of true nobility
an aquatic green cloak of malefic mist which shimmers and contorts as though constantly in motion, sizzling where it brushes against Her sash
a carmine sash which wraps lovingly about Her arms before coming to float above Her shoulders, exuding an aura of unease all the while

a gilded hairpin dripping with menace

This hairpin is an exquisite expression of glittering opulence, every spark of light reflecting off
its surface like a surgeon's blade, sharp and cutting. Its slender body coils tightly into itself,
twisting into tense ridges that rise and fall with perfect precision. At one of its ends, a fall of
fragile yet unyielding chains tumbles from beneath a spray of poisonous hemlock enamelled a bitterly
clean hue, stained white like bones picked clean. Strewn about the spill of lacy strands, vipers
flash their ruby-tinted fangs, their sinuous bodies weaving mesmerising patterns throughout the
delicate links at artfully-spaced intervals. At the other end, naught adorns it save for a
treacherous needle-pointed tip possessing a narrow, hollow channel, a telling concession to
practicality tucked within this otherwise enchanting piece of Divine jewellery.

heeled slippers of grey silk

First and foremost easy to don and remove, these slippers pay homage to function rather than
fashion, with a thick, short heel to allow the cloth it is made of protection from fluids which may
litter the ground. Revealing naught of Her feet but Her ankles, the only decoration to be found upon
these slippers is a simple serpent embroidered in black, winding about a staff of bone.

multilayered robes in woundwort hues

With a solid collar in carmine red purposely arranged in parallel, gauzy grey cloth makes up a set
of interior robes over a dark bodice hosting a straight neckline and broidery of nondescript blooms
alongside the recurring hemlock flower. Both are tucked into a long, fluttering skirt which shimmers
and distorts with dark shadows regardless of the light, swimming across the silk like ink spilled
from a bottle. The navel-high waistband is secured with ribbons of charcoal and chartreuse, the ends
of which cascade down to the ankle along with wide pleats that dissolve into wisps of mist ere they
can terminate naturally. Nearly translucent, green mist solidifies into an overrobe which veils the
arms with overlong sleeves, its hem coming to rest at mid-calf. The marsh green of these overrobes
briefly shimmer gold when they are brushed into motion.

an aquatic green cloak of malefic mist

This raiment been fit with a generous hood of the same strange Divine weave, able to drape over any
adorned coiffure without snagging. Just above the elbow, shifting patterns sinuously circle around
the cloak, barely a few shades lighter than the rich aquatic green. The fall of the lustrous
material ends not in a rippling hem but an ethereal haze, a faint perfume of petrichor drifting from
the glittering mist that is nearly overpowered by the sterility which surrounds Her.

a carmine sash

A cloying, sanguine haze surges through the air in the form of a long, floating sash. Wreathing
about the arms before rising to arch over the shoulders, the blood which drips from it sizzles and
burns away before it can dare to stain the clothing which it serves to tie back. Occasionally,
whispers of contrition can be heard escaping from the haze, accompanied by the faintest silhouette
of a tormented face; flickering into existence just as quickly as it fades away once more, leaving
you unsure it was ever seen at all.

malmydia

2

Re: Changes to Cloaking Gems and WHO lists

Qistrel said:

How is Stealth Veil going to interact with this? Will just do (cloaked location)?

Stealth Veil should still function as it stands now, however (shown in your latest comment) if the preference is to bring it into line with the changes and show (cloaked location) we can certainly do that as well.

Qoivhae said:

I think there is some confusion going on and I would like to clarify a few things. Here's an example, if I am either in possession of a cloaking gem or in a manse with a privacy gem, it would show:

Qoivhae - (cloaked location)

-regardless of any plane in both WHO and EWHO, is this correct?

Also, I agree with Iarae and the others who prefer keeping players hidden in manses with privacy gems to some extent, as the primary intention of "privatising" the manse room is to keep it and the people inside private. Because for me, knowing someone is [Within an Aethermanse] could mean that person is just in a manse and may or may not need some privacy. So, what if the location of private manse rooms is changed to something that connotatively mean, Do Not Disturb? But seriously, something that goes along these lines, [Within the privacy of an Aethermanse] is probably fine since having the cloaking gem would take precedence anyway. Additionally and optionally, perhaps we can have another feature of the privacy gem to toggle if the room will passively turn off tells and all other channels when inside.

Ealix said:

EWHO Command:
The EWHO command will function essentially the same, showing room names of players, aside from those who have a cloaking gem.
The one exception to this will be manse room names. It will show players in manses similar to the normal WHO example below.
We are also going to remove the little bit at the end of the line which has [PLANE] from the EWHO command, and correct the player count at the bottom of EWHO.

If I do not have a cloaking gem and happen to be on Astral, I will show in WHO but it becomes:

Qoivhae - [Travelling Off-Plane]

and EWHO would specify which room I am in:

Qoivhae a pan of iron filings [plane name].

If the previous example is correct, is there any specific reason why the plane name would be removed from EWHO (and to echo Ayisdra's comment, remove the room manse name)? The scrying mirror is quite an expensive artifact and I think its purpose is to specifically identify where people are (except when cloaked or with private gem).

On an extra and lighter note, does this mean we are going to have a chameleon tattoo mechanic like in other IRE games as well?

The main reason for removing the PLANE at the end of EWHO (at least in my opinion) is the assumed knowledge by the playerbase once they reach that point of the game where they can start buying artifacts like this one. It feels to me that the information shown by the [PLANE] wasn't really necessary, particularly if people use Mudlet Mapper etc.

As for the first part, that is how you would show up on WHO/EWHO with those examples, yes.

If there is preference to retain the [PLANE] at the end, we can certainly do that.

As for the other comments on Manse Privacy vs. the proposed changes, I will pass the information back and we will have a discussion about it and place the results here once we have concluded discussions.

Ealix

2

Changes to Cloaking Gems and WHO lists

Something that has caused issues in both Lusternia and other IRE games is the way cloaking gems work. While a valid and useful tool for both combat and general hiding, the problem we face with cloaking gems is that they leave the game feeling somewhat empty and it can drive away newer players.

Lusternia is the last of the IRE games to retain the current system of cloaking gems, all the others moving away to a better system which enhances player visibility while retaining some effect of being hidden. This is something that we have decided to move on as well and we have conversed amongst ourselves a bit to come up with some plans and ideas on how to move forward.

Below are all the changes we are planning on making, but wanted to get some feedback from the player base before we make the changes.

Cloaking Gems:

Cloaking gems will no longer remove a player from the WHO list completely. It will remove their location, but not their name (Example below).
The bottom line of the WHO list (the ‘Currently, there are x Lusternians’ line) will be adjusted to show the total number of players online (Example below).
Cloaking gems will have the ability to use their current effect (being removed from WHO completely) for 10 minutes with 5 uses maximum per real life day.

WHO command:

All players, regardless of their in-game location, will be shown on the WHO list.
Thirdeye will function the same for players on the same plane, but not others.
We are going to add little location blurbs for players not on the same plane as the one you are standing on (Example below).

EWHO Command:

The EWHO command will function essentially the same, showing room names of players, aside from those who have a cloaking gem.

The one exception to this will be manse room names. It will show players in manses similar to the normal WHO example below.
We are also going to remove the little bit at the end of the line which has [PLANE] from the EWHO command, and correct the player count at the bottom of EWHO.

Example new WHO (WITH Third-eye):

Aeral - [Travelling Off-Plane]

Aisha - a solemn graveyard

Alysi - [Traversing the Aetherways]

Aramantos - (cloaked location)

Ayisdra - the northern tower wall-walk

Calista - the Garden of the Moirae

Etra - [Travelling Off-Plane]

Evette - the northern tower wall-walk

Exeryte - the northern tower wall-walk

Faragan - the northern tower wall-walk

Freja - (cloaked location)

Galaphyrae - the northern tower wall-walk

Huskii - the northern tower wall-walk

Iazin - [Within an Aethermanse]

Kalaneya - the northern tower wall-walk

Kalliope - [Travelling Off-Plane]

Keegan - [Traversing the Aetherways]

Currently there are 17 Lusternians, 8 of which are hidden from you.

As an explanation:

Any player not on the same Plane as you will be shown as [Travelling Off-Plane].
Any player in an Aethership in Aetherspace or on a bubble will be shown as [Traversing the Aetherways].
Any player in an aethermanse will be shown as [Within an Aethermanse].
We are also considering adding more lines such as [Delving the Ruins of Grimkeep] for Grimkeep and other areas we may release in the future, to show players actively doing cool and fun things.
The total number of players will always be every online player, however the ‘x of which are hidden from you’ will account for cloaking gems, manses, off-plane, off-continent etc.

Other changes:

We are going to adjust CWHO/GWHO to show ‘Currently, there are x visible citizens and y travelling far-off places’ to account for players off-continent or off-plane, etc.
We are going to remove the BWHO command, as it functions the same as QWHO.

As stated, we are looking for some feedback on this before we make any changes, and want to take your opinions on board before we start making changes.

Thanks in advance,

~Ealix

Ealix

10

Histories Comics: Elder Wars

Shortly after I started playing Lusternia, I always had the urge to draw comics of the Elder Wars, which I have done from time to time to... varying degrees of success. Over the latter half of 2022, however, I picked it up again in earnest, starting from the very beginning: the Book of Dracnoris. Most of them have been submitted to the Artisanal contests, plus posted on the Official Discord, so I'm sure most of them have already been seen. But as I've finished all 8 pages, I'll be posting them all here in a forum thread.

Since all 8 are completed now, many many apologies for any perceived spam.

I'm not entirely sure if I'll continue it past this, for a variety of reasons, but primarily because it would be a very, very long project, even with tweaks to writing and flow for brevity's sake.

(Spoiler: I am not good at drawing dragons. Or comics in general! Maybe one day I'll improve.)

Esei

1

Re: Tweets VIII: Knocks Me Off My Tweet

Sincere gratitude to the Havens team for all the things this month.

Xiran

3

Re: Minnesota?

I'm in Shakopee, not so far away. But yeah, Midwest meet-and-greets don't really seem to happen. But I know there's more of us!

Riluna

1

Re: Gurashi Draws: An Autobiography

I fell into a habit of exclusively drawing Lusternia-related things for years, and I was honestly happy with that. I had so much inspiration in spite of all that was going on, and so many stories I wanted to tell, so many logs lovingly thumbnailed in my sketchbook, lists of logs I wanted to illustrate. So many things I wanted to say. Time is flies and kitties are soft.

Image: https://localforums.lusternia.com/uploads/editor/be/dkcka0tnq0rc.png

Gurashi

6

Re: Cloaking Gems (Again)

Going to repeat her a comment I made on discord.

Leave who/qwho functionality as is (or change it to a different command with the same functionality), gem removes you from the list, shows plane only (ewho untouched as well). Make a new type of who list that is for who online, it would show regardless of plane and lists the player but nothing about location. There are some things to consider such as how it would interact with people in manses, or people too far off prime for a newbie to send a tell (such as on an aetherbubble) - but those can be worked out. I also don't really mind if the new who online is put as the default who, and the current one is changed to a new command.

The key aspects for why most people get a gem is not to appear offline, but so that they can do engage in conflict/sneak into places without being detected. So any changes which nerfs that hiding your location would counter the usual purpose of the gem. Ie, if a change was made to have gem only hide location but could still detect what plane you're on would not be a good change. For example if If I'm on astral with my gem, somebody else on astral shouldn't be able to see I'm on astral by checking who, but I don't mind if they know I'm online somewhere in the game.

Uzriel

1

Re: Lusternian Divine AMA

Amusement tends to be my reaction rather than PANEC, and can lead to fun times! The first example that springs to mind is Merceaux and the beggars, from my release event. The oft-forgotten eye of the numerous downtrodden and hungry in Magnagora was turned to player favour and led to some laughs as we joked about what a beggar would even consider spending the amount of gold they were given on.

malmydia

1