Upcoming TS - Details (September / October)

[Chance]

After much consideration and discussion among the staff along with various faction leaders, it’s been decided that within the coming months there will be a timeskip. When this will be exactly is difficult for us to give an exact date as we want to do it right and ensure it’s packed with goods, but what I will do in this thread is outline what it’ll entail as a general overview that’s subject to changes, as far as game development, the setting, and administration go.

Setting
Since the beginning, I think you can all be very proud of the story that’s been put together when you take a step back and take it in, with interesting continuity and a sense of progression year to year. Many climatic moments and stand out characters that I’ll personally remember forever with a fondness, and hope that many of you do too. Now I’m looking at the current world now with a keen sense of excitement as I feel like it’s in the perfect place to transition to something big.

Here’s an overview of how we’ll be going into things post-TS. I am leaving it all spoiler free, mostly, but the lore will naturally be fleshed out once we’re closer to the time and available:

• There will be two main, Osrona-like cities based on the events within the year gap (and what appears to be leading up to it). An early look of the new city to the far west.
  

Between and around these two main hubs, there will be a number of smaller locations and resource hotspots. These are usually lone, unique buildings with their own farmland and interior lots. Aside from the first two, the others are up in the air and purely examples - so feel free to get in touch if you have an idea!

• Many beastkin have migrated to the woodlands due to certain events, living in a number of tribes in enclosed, small villages deep in the forest. Think similar to Gehenna, based around a universal religion. All beastkin will spawn here, but are free to waddle off and live as a city-dweller if they prefer that to the tribes.
  
• A great Fireblooded Temple near the base of the mountains. Drakanites will begin here.
  

Now here’s some optional groups that may or may not feature, depending on interest and feedback. This is just me brainstorming, but we can do anything, really:

• The noble house of Grimmore officially broke ties with the Kingdom of Esshar after the Myllenoris-Osrona war, but now they’re back in Grimmore Spire with a small force. They have renewed interest in the heartland. 
  
• A vampire, or two, or three… with their loyal followers and servants. Perhaps a cult of some kind.
  
• A group of necromancers with an agenda. (The horde of skeleton type, not the PC revival kind)
  
• Siren pirates that have taken over a commonly travelled bridge, living in boat homes. 
  

Development

• Dungeon runs for guilds. Beating a boss grants a chunk of coin and loot. When you defeat a boss it announces it to your guild. You can generate a key once a day and members of the same guild can party up with you to enter a dungeon!
  
• Online time tracking, amount of RPs posted, and newbie highlighting (displays their name in green if they have less than 100 active hours)
  
• Re-adding billboards. The guild leader and level 4 members have ownership permissions. For those that are unaware, a billboard lets you place a piece of written paper for others to view.
  
• Various public spell additions, and racial mechanics. Aiming for two dozen. Here’s a few spells that were drawn recently: 1, 2, 3, with more on the way
  
• Possibly more. We’ll see, but everything above is what we definitely want in.
  

Administration

• I will be personally running at least one event a week and holding myself to that schedule indefinitely, and we’ll assign a DM to each major group with a plot line mapped out in advance of things. I’ve already got a number of ideas that I’m excited to put to action with overarching story arcs, with each place having a particular hook.
  
• In lieu of recent changes, the forum will continue to be more focused on IC and general feedback rather than arguments and debates, as I feel this is better for the health of the community (...and our personal health, too!). I realize that these conversations don’t come from nowhere, though, and will continue to try and improve / address as issues are highlighted and suggestions are made.
  
• I was suggested hosting a weekly meeting at a scheduled day/time and like that idea, a few hours of direct communication between the admins and the community on the test server, then the logs are posted in a sub-forum. Going to do that.
  

I’ll also touch on some natural concerns, too, as I feel there are a lot of valid worries that’re going to come up. We can get into that on the discussion thread. I'm not personally keen on a cycle of TSing every 6 months, but I also don’t want to be trapped in the original Eternia model of just letting things go on regardless for the novelty of it - as I prefer the world when it is vibrant and alive, rather than stagnant and at a dead end point, and feel like it is at the stage now where it’s in a good place to make this move for the better in the long-term. I hope that the next rodeo stays strong for at least a year or more, but I’m also very proud of everything that’s happened thus far and don’t feel like this is necessarily an admittance of ‘failure’ so much as a choice for the better. Hopefully this time it's a blast too!

I also don’t want anyone to feel like they’re losing out from this, though I know that’s inevitable. There’s a lot of characters I’m seeing around at the moment that I feel would be great in the elder role post-TS, and I’m more than happy to work with anyone and hash things out. And I also hope that we can still enjoy the roleplay over the next month and beyond despite this announcement. The server will remain online, and when we're closer to completion a heads up will be given at least a few weeks in advance.