Brace yourselves, the following edition of the Times is crammed with news! The past week was absolutely crazy in terms of progress, not only project-wise! Prepare for a lot of awesome images and news!
Another statement I want to make in this week's Times is about what the status of Moria is. Moria officially is still on hold, until Gondor is 100.00% finished, and I don't intend to change that, for the simple reason that Moria will require all the attention MCME can bring up at once. Still Moria is slowly awaking, first jobs have been run there and already two staff members and some Artists are working on it often. The plan will be once it properly starts to allow most of it to be built by Adventurers+ using the upcoming Plotbuild Plugin. A lot of planning is yet due until that can be started though.
Breaking NewsThe Donations page is back up! Consider donating something! It is vital for keeping MCME alive and the more money @q220 receives, the more awesome things for MCME he can do with it! Donate here: Community Costs | Minecraft Middle Earth.
Andrast (In Progress) - Lead: @jacenpeter
Plugin DevelopmentSeems like jacen is done nuking, this week he started adding materials other than sand again! We have a big chance now to make a pretty unified mountain design, I really hope we seize the opportunity.
Anfalas (In Progress) - Lead: @DSESGH
While there are not many different things to be reported about Ivan's work (he continued with terraforming rivers in the valley of the Lefnui) it's @kisos who has to be mentioned. I don't think I'm exaggerating when stating that kis has terraformed and vegetated almost half of Anfalas in only one week, the progress on the map is surreal!
Additionally @bender400 has worked on southern Anfalas, @Thijs1801 has run a few road jobs and @greglas2 and kis have worked a bit on the salt works.
Lamedon (In Progress) - Lead: @Eriol_EandurAdditionally @bender400 has worked on southern Anfalas, @Thijs1801 has run a few road jobs and @greglas2 and kis have worked a bit on the salt works.
During this week I pasted a lot of trees at the western hillsides of the Lamedon Mountains and run some root fixing jobs. Not much progress on the large rivers of Lamedon though.
@_Luk is working on vegetation in the western parts of Lamedon.
- Eriol_Eandur
Misty Mountains (In Progress) - Lead: @Emilio_ (Eregion), @Finrod_Amandil (Misties), @Mandos (Gladden Fields)@_Luk is working on vegetation in the western parts of Lamedon.
- Eriol_Eandur
Progress, progress, progress: This clearly was the motto this week in the Hithaeglir (the elvish name of the Misties). First of all we managed to finish the Highmoors of Rivendell at last! A special shoutout to @Darki190 who has most likely contributed most to this, furthermore @Ryiw who's first job ever was the last Highmoor job ever! A huge thank you to everyone else who helped in the Misties this week, @Wraith_Knight, @Nic1337, @Eaglz, @Wroxxite, @thomasd16, @DarkVargoth and @LVIMDOESGAMES, hopefully I forgot noone!
Thanks to the Highmoors being complete now, the path of the Fellowship to Rivendell is now complete again. Be sure to follow the footprints through this new landscape in the next days!
Beside the Highmoors I have been intensively working on completing the entire western side of the current sections, an area of about 1700 blocks in heigth. Especially I have completed all the numerous streams coming down from the mountains (the most painstaking part of the terraforming) and added the dark grey stone variant to all the valleys.
Made by the Artists mentioned above were a lot of new paths through the tricky terrain: The northern and southern Gladden Pass access paths, and a part of the fellowships path a bit further down.
On the other side of the Mountains in the Vale of the Anduin @Mandos and I have revised the concept for the Gladden Fields. We have closely studied the descriptions in the Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, and then made a new concept resembling it as closely as possible, check the images above for that. Special thanks to @Ma5terMinD and @jonasspil for instantly stepping in when we were in need of a new texture for Reeds.
The new concept is very laborious to create, but fortunately almost all of it can be done without voxel and hence can and will be made in numerous jobs in the hopefully close future, by now we have to wait for @q220 to add the yellow flowers and the double tall grass to the no-physics list, because stacking flowers ontop of lower halfs of double grass is not really something vanilla minecraft permits, and thus its highly instable and the entire island evaporates into sweet nothingness when touching one block...
Fornost Reruin (In Progress) - Lead: @Fireinferno13 & @DemonatazThanks to the Highmoors being complete now, the path of the Fellowship to Rivendell is now complete again. Be sure to follow the footprints through this new landscape in the next days!
Beside the Highmoors I have been intensively working on completing the entire western side of the current sections, an area of about 1700 blocks in heigth. Especially I have completed all the numerous streams coming down from the mountains (the most painstaking part of the terraforming) and added the dark grey stone variant to all the valleys.
Made by the Artists mentioned above were a lot of new paths through the tricky terrain: The northern and southern Gladden Pass access paths, and a part of the fellowships path a bit further down.
On the other side of the Mountains in the Vale of the Anduin @Mandos and I have revised the concept for the Gladden Fields. We have closely studied the descriptions in the Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, and then made a new concept resembling it as closely as possible, check the images above for that. Special thanks to @Ma5terMinD and @jonasspil for instantly stepping in when we were in need of a new texture for Reeds.
The new concept is very laborious to create, but fortunately almost all of it can be done without voxel and hence can and will be made in numerous jobs in the hopefully close future, by now we have to wait for @q220 to add the yellow flowers and the double tall grass to the no-physics list, because stacking flowers ontop of lower halfs of double grass is not really something vanilla minecraft permits, and thus its highly instable and the entire island evaporates into sweet nothingness when touching one block...
Inside the yet quite intact Fornost walls a lot of hands have smashed the countless houses. The hands belong beside to Fire and Demon to @Ryiw, @roger1013, @Wraith_Knight, @Jesia, @Eaglz and @greglas2.
Outside the walls Demon has beenruining improving some chunks of terrain and made nicer river sources.
[Public Project] - Fennas Drúnin (In Progress) - Lead: @thomasd16Outside the walls Demon has been
Made quite a bit of progress this week on the village across the Mitheithel, all the houses are done now and all I have left to do is add a few farms and some interior. Thijs has also done some voxelling mainly on the rivers which are looking much better now.
- thomasd16
- thomasd16
Plotbuild Plugin (Last bug fixes in progress) - Devs: @Eriol_Eandur & @Ivan1pl
Resource PacksThe Plotbuild Plugin will make it possible to make plots on the main map that can be claimed and be built on by anyone and then be easily reviewed and managed by staff.
No changes since last week.
New New Player World (Ready for implementation) - Dev: @Eriol_Eandur, Assistance: @_LukNo changes since last week.
A new Intro Quiz for new players.
No changes since last week.
Moria Teleport Plugin (In Progress) - Dev: @Eriol_EandurNo changes since last week.
For seamless teleports to and from new Moria aswell as inside Moria.
We had to realise that our goal cant be achieved as easily as we hoped. A seamless teleportation over further distances requires the clients to preload the required chunks. Eriol is trying out various ideas but so far he has not yet found a satisfying solution.
Minigames Plugin (Small fixes in progress) - Dev: @Eriol_EandurWe had to realise that our goal cant be achieved as easily as we hoped. A seamless teleportation over further distances requires the clients to preload the required chunks. Eriol is trying out various ideas but so far he has not yet found a satisfying solution.
A plugin to easily run various minigames like Hide and Seek, Races and Quizzes.
Gathering questions for the quizzes.
Randomising Plugin (Ready for implementation) - Dev: @Eriol_EandurGathering questions for the quizzes.
A small plugin for staff members to easily randomize growth stages on fields.
No changes since last week.
Banner Editor (Ready for implementation) - Dev: @Eriol_EandurNo changes since last week.
A plugin for easily editing and creating banners.
So I did have the time to test the plugin now and it is very neat; without knowing the very numerous crafting recipes required for fancy banners I was able to assemble some very nice designs. Definitely a fantastic addition especially as soon as we have @SKy_the_Thunder's banner textures added.
So I did have the time to test the plugin now and it is very neat; without knowing the very numerous crafting recipes required for fancy banners I was able to assemble some very nice designs. Definitely a fantastic addition especially as soon as we have @SKy_the_Thunder's banner textures added.
Mordor Pack (In Progress) - Lead: @bender400
New Doors (Waiting for Update) - Creator: @Ryiw
Reeds and new flowers (Upload to Github pending) - Creator: @Ma5terMinD
The Resource Pack is taking huge leaps of progress. @bender400 thankfully has assembled some screenshots of the first textures in action aswell as some first concepts for clouds in Mordor:
Don't forget to tell how awesome these look:
Don't forget to tell how awesome these look:
New Doors (Waiting for Update) - Creator: @Ryiw
Banners (Waiting for Update) - Creator: @SKy_the_ThunderReeds and new flowers (Upload to Github pending) - Creator: @Ma5terMinD
Rank Updates
I think it's worth recapitulating the recent staff promotions:
- @Ryiw has newly been promoted to Designer.
- @Genexos has newly been promoted to Designer.
- @kisos has terminated his break and returned to Designer.
A lot of Media has been created this week, but most awesome of all are Despots new Moria screens!
Here's my favorite of his recent collection, see all images here: Official Moria screenshots dump
Moria Guests Dining Hall by @Despot666.
Other news
HD Eriador pack by Despot666I feel like far too few people have yet taken notice of this project of @Despot666: He is working since a couple months on a 32px resolution Eriador pack which looks absolutely gorgeous:
Have a look on any potential announcements on the forums, maybe it soon will be downloadable!
Motivation series
Have a look on any potential announcements on the forums, maybe it soon will be downloadable!
@smogpaster has messaged all staff members and asked them about their motivation to build/play on MCME and he got a bunch of really interesting answers which I deem worthy to share with everyone!
Audiobook review@Finrod_Amandil:
First of all its my uncurable nerdiness and passion for all that has to do with Tolkien. I probably know more about the history of Arda than about real life history and after German and English I know Quenya and Sindarin (two elvish languages) best. It's hard to find other people who share a similarily strong affection for this fictional world, but here on MCME they gather and here I can join into many pages long forum discussions about the fate of the Palantír of Osgiliath.
Second thing is learning things that are of great use in real life. One thing is as already mentioned learning English (not school-english but actually english as it is being used by actual native speakers), on the other hand it's social skills. Although I never expected to gain a rank as high as I have it currently (I would have been satisfied with Artist) I enjoy the challenges that arise when working with so many people and it leads to very fundamentalistic questions like why one should punish people that are playing nothing but a simple game. Making MCME a friendly and comfy environment is a lot harder than it may seem. But skills gained by solving these problems can be priceless IRL.
Thirdly, even though I have to neglect that part more and more with more administrative MCME things falling into my hands, is enjoying building Middle-Earth. Creating mountains for hours or constructing a nice building is as relaxing as only few other things are.
First of all its my uncurable nerdiness and passion for all that has to do with Tolkien. I probably know more about the history of Arda than about real life history and after German and English I know Quenya and Sindarin (two elvish languages) best. It's hard to find other people who share a similarily strong affection for this fictional world, but here on MCME they gather and here I can join into many pages long forum discussions about the fate of the Palantír of Osgiliath.
Second thing is learning things that are of great use in real life. One thing is as already mentioned learning English (not school-english but actually english as it is being used by actual native speakers), on the other hand it's social skills. Although I never expected to gain a rank as high as I have it currently (I would have been satisfied with Artist) I enjoy the challenges that arise when working with so many people and it leads to very fundamentalistic questions like why one should punish people that are playing nothing but a simple game. Making MCME a friendly and comfy environment is a lot harder than it may seem. But skills gained by solving these problems can be priceless IRL.
Thirdly, even though I have to neglect that part more and more with more administrative MCME things falling into my hands, is enjoying building Middle-Earth. Creating mountains for hours or constructing a nice building is as relaxing as only few other things are.
This saturday we listened to chapters 3, 4 and 5 of Book 1. We at last left Bagend, wandered through the green hill county, got all too close to a Black Rider and met Gildor and his companions. Then we walked on towards Buckland while sorely missing the distances described in the book (#shirerevamp), crossed the Brandywine and then reached Frodo's new home Crickhollow, only to state that we're going to leave the next day for the Old Forest.
I and @Wraith_Knight have taken a few screenshots during the Audiobook:
For the next session I have added one more poll asking whether you'd rather prefer the 19 GMT or 21 GMT timing.
I and @Wraith_Knight have taken a few screenshots during the Audiobook:
For the next session I have added one more poll asking whether you'd rather prefer the 19 GMT or 21 GMT timing.
Lore Bits #3: Eaglz (pun intended)
It's by far the most (in)famous plothole in the Lord of the Rings: Why did not simply an Eagle fly over Mount Doom, drop in the ring and a long series of battles with many casualties would have been avoided? While one may start argueing with strategical arguments like Eagles can be shot down or what not, the explanation is found far away of such thoughts. In the last Times edition we have learned about the forging of the Great Rings, an act that had a major elven influence. The explanation now is that the Eagles are creatures guided by Manwe, the highest of the Valar, and just these most likely have decided that the War of the Ring is a conflict (partly) caused by the Elves, and therefor it is their task to solve the conflict. Of course the Valar could have just simply invaded Middle-earth and beaten Sauron down in no time, but would the inhabitants of Middle-earth have learned any lesson in that case? Most likely not. The Valar did send some help though, the Istari. But there again, the wizards were Maiar, so theoretically beings of the same power as the Balrog of Moria and Sauron himself. But their function was not to win the war, but being a counsel for the people of Middle-earth, to support them more with wisdom than with physical strength.
Themed Build
This week's Themed Build is one of the Shire's numerous inns: The Floating Log Inn (Eriador pack).
Themed Build Thread: #5/16 - The Floating Log Inn
Audiobook session 3
Community OutreachNext saturday february 20th the next audiobook session will take place. The time will depend on what above poll yields and will be announced a few days ahead. We'll listen to the 6th, 7th and 8th chapter of Book 1.
Tours
There are no Tours announced for this week yet, but keep an eye on this thread and request a tour if you want one!
Jobs & Plotbuilds
Jobs for next Saturday will be announced in this thread over the course of the week. Be sure to ask Designers for jobs at any time, maybe they can offer something!
Proofreading the MCME TimesI'm not a native English speaker, and while the step up to understandable English may be rather easy compared with other languages, the step from understandable to (very) good English is much more challenging. Both to present you an as perfect as possible reading experience regarding grammar aswell as fixing some of my flaws in writing I am letting the Times being proofread from now on. If you are a native English speaker and want to help proofreading, please message me.
Firework competition for Gondor completion firework show@SmaugJuice is putting up a firework show to celebrate the completion of Gondor, once we achieve that. For the grand finale of his show he wants to use firework creations made by the community. Every serious entry will be used, additionally the best contribution will allow its creator to start the firework show!
Message your firework recipes directly to @SmaugJuice.
Screenshots for FacebookMessage your firework recipes directly to @SmaugJuice.
@Tyranystrasz has access to the MCME Facebook page and is regularily posting screenshots of our builds there! Lend him a hand and submit your best screens here: MCME screenshots for Facebook
Mandos has developped a Gladden Fields concept a week ago. This week I came and told him why I'm not yet happy with it and why we should look into it again. So far it was not much more than a concept, so not too much work was lost. I found the following quote that matches this situation quite nicely, and connected with it I may try to point out my job in this community: Make sure everyone is going in the right direction, and if not make them turn as soon as possible. But the going itself is something everyone has to do himself
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