Dear Players (that means you):

Has 2006 come and gone so quickly? Yes, indeed, it has! I'd like to take this time to review what's been happening this past year as candidly as possible. There have certainly been some ups and downs, but I am very proud of what was accomplished and look forward to what the new year shall bring.

We started off in 2006 on very rocky grounds. The year began with the loss of our paid coder Hajamin under what can only be described as unfortunate circumstances of his own making. All I'll say is that lies and cover ups often rise to be more serious matters than the original offense (just ask politicians!). Anyway, this left us shorthanded and, more detrimentally, created a rather depressing environment among the staff of having been betrayed. But life goes on and so did we, as the first of the library contests were initiated in January and Lisaera, a volunteer coder at that time, was revamping the order and shrine system. Around this time, Lisaera became a paid staff member. A few other features were implemented, such as the esteem system and the cosmic guardian symbols (which some of you remember was released through an event where the Supernals and Demon Lords went into their Time of Sleeping).

Our major project, however, that we had been working on for some time prior, was the release of aetherspace. I'm not sure if anyone realizes what a coding accomplishment the aethercraft system is, but all credit for coding goes squarely on Roark's shoulder (though you can thank me for design). Frankly, I think our system is one of the best and most innovative systems in all the IRE game. To release aetherspace, we needed the first of the aetherbubbles, which our volunteer admin gamely created. This was probably one of my favorite opening events, which behind the scenes we called the "Gnomes in Space" event.

Over the next several months as the mid-year approached, several of our volunteers retired, which hit me personally rather hard as I had to ask myself, was it my fault? This was a very dark time for me, as I had promised players the aethercraft specializations as the next priority but our corporate masters demanded a complete overhaul of the code in preparation for the next version of Rapture. I can't tell you how upset I was that I couldn't deliver what was promised. On top of that, Lisaera was promoted to Aetolia! Of course, I wished her well and hear she is now doing a fantastic job (as I knew she would), but this certainly was a low ebb for me.

As some of you may suspect, I'm not one to give up! We met the second half of the year with full guns blazing. I took a hard look at myself and strove to be a better manager for our volunteers. When we finished the truly horrendous coding project of preparing for the latest Rapture version, we went full force into the new general skill of Dramatics which was in preparation for our next big release: Bards! We hired a new paid coder, Sior, and several new volunteers rose from ephemeral to godhood.

Around this time, we began the process of diluting the effects of the conflicts quests, namely the Faethorn quests, Inner Sea and cosmic plane quests, which had mixed reactions. Some accused us of eviscerating conflict altogether but time proved that it was the right decision, as there was a decrease in the amount of player turnover and a palatable lessening of frustration.

Roark was finally able to finish the aethercraft specializations. On top of that we went forward to again enhance aetherspace by designing and implementing the aetherspace trading system. At this point, I am very pleased with aetherspace and feel it is one of our best features.

We also implemented what I think turned out to be one of our best ideas of the year: Mini Envoy Reports! Full envoy reports were something we could only do once (or MAYBE twice) a year and took a full month (or more) of development time. The mini reports were confined to a handful of the top issues as brought up by the envoys, and we are able to do 1-2 reports per month as well as continue coding our other projects. I'm very happy with how this has turned out and hope you have been too.

Unfortunately, we ran into a very sticky wicket with an event involving Viravain and Glomdoring to the point where it was either shrub the entire Glomdoring leadership or admit defeat and try to solve Glomdoring's issues in an OOC matter. Needless to say, we opted for the latter! Basically, there was a perceived oppressive culture in Glomdoring that we felt was manifesting in unacceptably low membership of a major player organization as well as complaints we were getting about the repressive atmosphere. Rather than use an rp event to try to force change, we opted to allow the players to work change within on their own. This wasn't as successful as we had hoped. However, the new incarnation of Viravain has given a new direction to Glomdoring and we are just now seeing a turnaround.

Our two year anniversary climaxed with the release of the bards, and it was really fun to surprise the players with it! I hope you enjoyed the bards release as much as we did. I think the anniversary got everyone's spirits up.

Nexus worlds were introduced with the Elostian event, where two old gods merged into one. This paved the way for our big December event, which was the invasion of the nexus worlds by serpentine creatures, climaxing in the formation of a mysterious entity powerful enough to challenge Estarra and Kethuru. Constructs were erected on the nexus worlds and the Ascended God Event was initiated where one player will claim divinity. The Ascended God was a concept I had for a long time but there are many obstacles and arguments against implementing a system for player gods (as opposed to a volunteer admin gods). However, we've gone out on a limb and placed our trust in the players with hopes that this great experiment will work!

Wow! A lot has happened this year indeed. There were several other events I didn't mention, notably the Fae Marriage, the Morgfyre Event (returning first as the Golden Lord), and the Dark Spirits of Serenwilde. Plus don't forget the new areas: Snow Valley, the Presidio of the Damned and the Shallamurine Cathedral, Mount Zoaka, Tolborolla Valley, and all the aetherbubbles (including Xion and Cankermore).

I think we are heading into 2007 with probably the best volunteer staff we've been lucky enough to have in Lusternia yet. I'd like to send a special shout out to Morgfyre and Fain, both of whom have learned coding in Rapture on their own and have proven to be invaluable assets. Of course, Terentia, Charune, Viravain, Elostian, and Sior have proven to be solid pillars in the game and are great people who I count as friends. My opinion of Roark is unchanged: I think he is a top coder (one of the best in IRE and the MUD world in general), and his libertarian viewpoints are always fun diversions (just kidding, Roark!). And I must say that the up-and-coming ephemerals show much promise and I can't wait to see what they'll accomplish!

What will 2007 bring? Should I tell you that there will be new archetypes? New skillsets and specializations? Ascended Gods? Nexus world conflicts? Grand events and new expansions?

Nah, I'll just say we'll continue as we always have, striving to make the best darn multiuser online text roleplaying game ever to exist throughout the entire known multiverse and beyond!

Love,
Estarra

Wow, I didn't know you were considering shrubbing all their leadership as an option. Was that part serious or were you joking? (I honestly can't tell from the post.)

Hooray.

Townhall = much love

I was joking of course!!















Or was I???

Lusternia for the Win !

Your work and utter dedication are admirable indeed, along with the sheer magnitude of everything the admin has created in a single year.

Thankee kindly and keep up the good work, would be nice to grow old with Lusternia.

Must we have more archetypes? Some guilds were stretched really thin already.

Oh.. and..

Thanks for making such a great game!

That...would be what I was asking.

But ok.

I came here because I was fed up with the immaturity and stupidity of most (see: 99%) of Achaea.

Achaea never seemed to've done any major additions- a few new areas, most of them useless. But in Lusternia, every area has it's own history, biiiig quests, and secrets you just have to love.

And...Six, Seven skills, a ship system, and a whole new archetype? In just one year?

It's been a fantastic year, I've loved every minute of it, and I'm still here two years (and 2000+ hours) later.

The events have been top-notch, and aetherspace in general is a gorgeous construct. I do miss Joe and what he had to bring to this virtual world, but what's done is done. I'm not sure the oppressive environment of Glomdoring has changed direction completely (though I'm biased, I just quit Glomdoring again today, having joined after our ooc summit to try and help it a bit), but we'll see how that goes. I'm eagerly awaiting what nexus worlds are going to turn into, and this last event was (and continues to be) interesting, as anything relating to the "main story" interests me greatly.

All in all, we're doing great. We're growing as a game, and proving to be a constant top MUD (as indicated by our rankings on topmudsites. Thanks to all of the paid and volunteer staff, I look forward to playing in our exciting game world.

Aww this gives me warm and fuzzys (I'm seirous, I'm such a sap)! I think we've all seen and experienced the ups and downs over the past year to some degree and I'm happy to see the people still around and the people emerging as rocks in the playerbase.

It makes me want to come back again and dive back into it all.

Congrats!

Congrats to the staff and to you Auntie 'tarra who has created something I keep putting money into... thank you for what you have done... a great place to form friendships and to spend money

See here for the possible solution on that!

Nexus World Conflict! Nexus World Conflict! Nexus World Conflict!:dribble:

Smaller, more flexible events.

New areas.

Thank you.

i'm getting close to having played for a year now and i'm amazed at how much work you all put in.


also IMO the morgfyre event was one of the best stories/plots I've ever seen.

Well, your particular problems with the Glomdoring power structure aside, things really are definitively changed. More people, more activity, more fun, more progress. It's definately a good change, overall, even though there's still some scar tissue left from the Siege.

Congratulations, Estarra and team.

It's odd to see the pride in the aethercraft and aetherspace system, cause I shamefully have -never- been there! heh heh.

It's been a great year and I'm very glad I decided to come back after a long absence from Lusty (yeah I went off to Impy for a bit) and sometime within that absence a break from mudding entirely (*gasp* I know!).

Have to say all the events I've been able to watch have been indeed pretty good. Definately looking forward to what this new year is going to bring!

Guess I'll have to go erase my shame by visiting aetherspace huh?


OH OH and.. duh Morgfyre. Event was great (save a few emotive errors *tease*) and well, duh, he's just awesome

Yeah.. okay thats enough cheer... -goes back to being evil n crazy-

I have heen coding for a few years, and I must say I am admire everyones achivements immensly, to the point where thinking about aetherspace gives me sympathy coding nightmares! Contratulations and happy new year to everyone!

One thing, and one thing only. You guys rock, I left Achaea, and tried all the IRE games. Lusternia hooked me, and I'm in looove.

The Divine rock, now If I COULD ONLY FIND MINE, Lyreth's been gone since the day before The Cantors came out, and I am losing hope