Vol 13 Issue 16 Onward!

Friends,

The amount of work that's been done in the last ten days is simply incredible. We couldn't be more pleased with our current staff roster and I'm going to give a special shout out to Rishte. She's been totes amah-zing. *wink* Seriously though, the sheer volume of work she's plowed through in the last month or so is staggering. Her strong work ethic, along with her willingness to take on the most menial of tasks is a boon to the game. She's the epitome of what a staff member should be, well, if you don't take in to account her unnatural love of cats. All kidding aside though, we love all of our staff members and think they're all doing a bang up job. Thanks all!

Staff's ability to run with and work on things and stay within our vision has allowed both Frigga and I to concentrate on some specific tasks that have been languishing for much too long. Frigga continues her crafting work, oversight, and general love for all things food and lore. I'm able to devote some serious time on Warcraft and backend systems.

I realize the public forums being shut down is still a bone of contention for many and we've discussed the issue at length among ourselves. We'll continue to leave the forums shut down for now, and most likely until we reach Beta, at which point we'll re-visit the issue and make a decision on how (and if) we should re-open some specific forums. Don't worry, none of the forums are gone, everything is safe and sound, it's just not available to the public. On a positive note though, the attention that we're able to devote to the game itself has sky rocketed and we're quite pleased with the results.

Yes, numbers are down in game, but that's okay. We still have a lot of people logging in for short periods of time, and several die-hard players that keep grinding away. We love you all! Don't worry, we're not going anywhere. The game is healthy and will continue for a long, long time. If you feel we're ignoring you, we apologize, but please know that in the long run, the time we spend now on fleshing out systems and the game itself will pay dividends in the future. Having a disciplined staff that concentrates on documentation and the game itself will allow us to step in to Beta much more prepared than we were for Alpha.

To touch base briefly on Warcraft, because that's what I'm spending the bulk of my time on and I'm very excited about it, I'd like to give you a brief run down on the process that you'll see as players in the future. Please note that there may be some things that have changed from my original talks on Warcraft, some things have morphed in to different systems and even sprouted new and bigger ideas.

So, what will you be able to do? Simply put, you'll be able to wage war in a much more drastic, and detailed manner than ever before. If you remember mini-forts, you've got an inkling of what Warcraft is all about. First off, anyone that wishes to found their own clan, be it an orc offshoot of the Vadok Ushtarak, a competing tribe, a merc group of drunken dwarves, they'll be able to apply for inclusion in the warcraft system and lead their clan to glory or utter destruction, depending on how good you are.

What, exactly will you be able to do? You'll be able to deploy multiple strongholds at your home base (number varies by clan). You'll be able to command those strongholds to pick up and move. Yes, you can move all the way across Central Mirkwood, though that'll take some time. Basically one room per day. You'll be able to reinforce your stronghold and increase its max hit point value, you'll be able to assign six types of troops to your position, and those troops will be able to gather six different resources. Troops will be self-sustaining if you deploy them in proper numbers, they'll even be able to gather resources that you can use for other things if you play your cards right.

You'll be able to recruit troops, deploy them to strongholds, recall them to your home base and re deploy them to other strongholds as well. Even non-combatants can get in on the action by donating, actively recruiting for you and lending aid when possible.

Once you park your stronghold in a room adjacent to an enemy stronghold you'll be able to engage in all out warfare, firing on the position with your catapults, raining down flaming arrows, burning the walls, laying seige in several different formats, even using your hands and feet to rip and tear at the enemy position if you dare to get close enough.

Once the stronghold position falls below 10 percent health it is considered breached, and you can send your npcs in to attack the defending npcs and you can even enter yourself to take on npcs or other pcs that may be defending the position. Aggressive attacks lead to prisoners that you can force in to labor to gain you even more resources. You can even send an enemy pc down in to your slave labor camps and force them to do your bidding, though some have been known to escape from time to time.

Don't have hours and hours to spend grinding out crafts to build up your position? Don't worry with our new craft timer bank and hefty crafts you'll be able to contribute a lot in a short time to your clan mates.

Ah, I've rambled on too long, apologies for the length of this newsletter.

Believe,

Nim

Builder News:

09/20/2015 Several rooms built for soon-to-be-available mines for multiple Sphere-use. Helloooooo mining crafts. Rishte
09/20/2015 Audited all dyecrafts. Now dye-making uses an Artistry check instead of Textiles and has a tiered branching structure to give better and more tangible growth patterns. Rishte

09/20/2015 Updated all leathercraft and good-leathercraft to have balanced and present delay timers, successes and fails. Rishte
09/20/2015 3 new crafts added to woodcrafting. Rejoice you whittlers! Rishte
09/20/2015 Added default and area-specific resource objects so some areas of Mirkwood may yield more or less wood, iron, food, water, rocks, and rope for Warcraft. Don't let your troops go hungry, make sure you have plenty of Gatherers in your stronghold! Nimrod
09/20/2015 New craft - clarify meat-drippings added for all your tasty fat needs. Frigga
09/20/2015 The list of greens produced from the current Mirkwood flora has been updated for use in chopping raw-greens and the new cooking craft basic-salad. Others have been tweaked for future use in medicines or as livestock feed. Frigga
09/20/2015 Added modifiable resource objects to sprinkle around in Mirkwood. Depending on where your stronghold is located, it may be able to gather some resources more quickly. Currently resources include: logs, iron, rope, food, water, and stones. All are important for the fight for Mirkwood. Nimrod
09/18/2015 Lots of stuff done on warcraft this week. Nimrod
09/15/2015 30 new gardening crafts. Wee. Rishte
09/14/2015 9 new orcharding crafts. 3 new gardening crafts. 1 new general craft built. Wee. Rishte
09/14/2015 Feeling peachy? Me too. Say hello to peaches, pears, figs, pippin apples, almonds, plums, olives, and grapes. Incoming amah-zing cooking madness and gardening deliciousness. Rishte
09/14/2015 Want to make some fertilizer? Check out general-labor. Rishte
09/13/2015 Modified naming function of strongholds to confirm so we don't get improperly named strongholds. Nimrod
Announcements:
09/20/2015 We're testing a new support system. Zendesk Inbox. Currently we only have a single inbox set up through the new system while we test. If you have any support needs, please help us out by using the system. Simply send your request to hello@middle-earth.us and it will automatically be added to our queue. You will communicate back and forth via email replies only. No more logging in to a separate web system. Please check it out and let us know what you think. -Nim Nimrod
09/12/2015 We've updated our policies. You can read them here: https://shadowcooperative.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PW/Policies Nimrod
Coding Announcements:
09/15/2015 Updated calculate_sale_price function. It was using the discount for the markup on pc-sold objects, which makes zero sense. Modified to use the correct markup on all objects instead. -Nim Nimrod
09/15/2015 Added Garden and Orchard sectors for crafting. -Nim Nimrod
Plot Announcements:
Web Site Announcements:
09/20/2015 We're adding things to the new wiki and we have the capability to allow up to 2000 users so if you're interested in contributing, please let us know. Nimrod

Described Rooms: 2519
Total Rooms: 2895
Total Mobiles: 370
Total Objects: 2550
Total Crafts: 1002

Total Characters: 1766
Total Accounts: 816
Player Writings: 1861