Nexus Update

Posting from D'ni - UruObsession(1) Neighborhood...

I've got some new developments regarding all of the people who can't get their KIs to log in to the lattice anymore, but I'd recommend taking it with a grain of salt. This news isn't coming directly from anyone at the DRC, but is instead being reported by GreyDragon from Cyan... but he has spent a lot of time in the cavern working with the explorers and the DRC, so I trust his word.

When you take photos and write notes with your KI a copy is saved locally to your KI, as well as making a "backup" of sorts in the lattice. Whenever you log in to the lattice, it compares your local data to the backup... so the more data you store in your KI, the longer it takes to log in. Now that things are far enough along that we can create our own marker missions that's one more thing that gets stored as data in your KI and the lattice, and given the nature of the marker missions these can be a LOT of data to deal with. If your KI takes too long to synch up with the lattice, then it just times out altogether and log in is impossible.

Supposedly this is being worked on, so hopefully anyone who has lost a KI or is having long login times with their current one will be taken care of soon. Until then, I urge all explorers to be responsible with what they keep in their KI, as well as being careful when creating and sharing marker missions.

Who would have known that finally progressing in the GZ recalibration would end up throwing such a wrench into things?

Different Paths...

Posting from D'ni - Ae'gura...

Can't sleep... so I've been wandering Ae'gura for a little while. Right now I'm just sitting in the pub listening to the idle chatter... nothing to add, nothing to report, it's just sound right now. Luckily for me though, there's a good supply of Pepsi hidden behind the bar amongst all of the alcohol.

So I'm sitting here on the bar, and wondering what this place would look like if Sharper and those explorers hadn't broken into it so long ago. Is there a chance it'd be restored by now? Or at least less of a mess than it is now? Could some have actually been running the place, serving thirsty ResEngs and Authorized Explorers? Would Uru Explorers be turned away, for not being recognized by the DRC? Would someone be yelling at me to get off the bar?

Though I also just realized that that Authorized/Uru Explorers division would only occur had something happened and the DRC had never lost funding to start with... and even then, I don't feel like a division that sharp would occur. Even then, the two groups got along just fine, even though the DRC themselves generally seemed pretty annoyed with the sharp influx of people.

But back to the pub... would those big metal doors across the room be open? Would that big imager be displaying menus, or messages, or status reports? Would all of these fallen rocks be tables instead? And of course there's that big passage, where I keep hoping we're going to find the DRC has neatly placed a Kahlo book one day... heh. I'd really love to see this place back at 100%... I mean, that goes for EVERYWHERE in the cavern, but the pub is a nice closed intimate sort of environment.. so it'd just make a great place to go to sit and discuss and debate with people. Maybe we could pipe in some music too!

Hm... why did they break in here in the first place? Did they want to look around this poor run down pub that badly? Maybe there was something here that Sharper wanted or needed? But that might just be me making him out to be a bad guy... I don't agree with his ways... but I don't think he's necessarily a BAD guy. After the events of the past few years, I keep wondering if we'll see him again, and he'll be a little less brash about his actions.

Hm... guess I'll go wander around and see if I can find some more stuff to rampantly speculate about.

Cyan Worlds Pizza Party 2006

Posting from Kadish Tolesa...

Today as a "thank you" to Cyan Worlds for years of entertainment, as well as their contributions to the DRC, the explorer community banded together to pay for a truck of pizzas to be delivered to the doors of Cyan. Along with the pizza was delivered a lovely plaque, and the remainder of the raise money has been contributed to a "Donut Fund".

As a result of this, a party was held this afternoon at Cyan (and may still be going?) which also spawned a cavern wide party in D'ni.... it's madness! There are people dancing all over Ae'gura, from the ferry to the Great Zero. Cocktail parties in the gallery.... there's an incredible rave going on just beneath me here in Kadish... who knows what else is going on. I wonder if the DRC are wandering around in this mess somewhere, and if they are, I wonder what they think of it all?

Myself... I'm loving every bit of it. There's so much energy right now, coming from Cyan, from the return of the restoration, from the hundreds of explorers. It's SWELTERING in here... the lights keep clicking on and off, people are bouncing off of eachother... a few of us started forming Tetris blocks when a Tetris remix started blaring. I... why am I writing here? I need to get out there on the floor! And besides that... I've got to host my own event in just a bit...

Bahro Activity, Nexus Woes, and Archiving

Posting from Teledahn...

I can now confirm a couple of the rumors I mentioned before... a Bahro stone has appeared in Eder Kemo, behind the large rotating statue. The stone links to the classroom roof in your respective neighborhood, which brings up a new theory... the Bahro stones need to bind themselves to a book to work. The stone has to be bound to my neighborhood linking book, otherwise it'd likely link me to some unknown 'hood, instead of the rooftop in MY specific neighborhood. This also stands true with the stone that can be found in Gahreesen for the 'hood balcony.

I don't know how long the stone will be around, or how frequently we'll see it again if it disappears though. As always... to my knowledge the DRC does not condone the use of unauthorized links, including Bahro stones... so you are linking at your own risk. Though that also brings up ANOTHER theory... last time a stone was sighted (the Teledahn dock stone near the Ae'gura ferry terminal) it was just after the museum had been officially opened to explorers for the first time. It was also just after the DRC Liaisons had been elected. I'm starting to believe that the Bahro may be rewarding everyone in a way, whenever progress is made in the restoration. After all... the GZ seems to be that much closer to being fully functional now... and a stone appears just a couple of days later.

Also of note.. the stone links to the classroom roof. It's a requirement that explorers get to that rooftop to complete one of the missions to recalibrate the Great Zero. Up until now, intrepid explorers have had to carefully jump down from the 'hood balcony onto the rooftop to grab the calibration marker there... but with this stone, it's only a link away. Perhaps they're actually trying to help us along in the effort to restore the GZ?

The lattice has been acting very strangely for the past few days. Explorers are being forced to register new KIs as their old ones suddenly stop registering in the system. This is frustrating, because the only way that we can register our new KIs under our old identities would be to erase the old KI from the system... which means losing all of our data. So those of us who have had to get new KIs are also running the markers for the Great Zero again to both calibrate the new KI, as well as add that much more help to the job of recalibrating the GZ. I was in the Baron's office earlier and... oh... hm.

I don't know if I've ever posted about this, but there's something very unusual in the Baron's office in Ae'gura. If you photograph the center painting of Teledahn, you'll notice D'ni numbers appear in the upper right hand corner of the painting. "3 1 4". Those have been there since I first came down way back at the start of 2004, but as far as I know, no one has found a purpose or meaning for them. Who knows... it could be anything from an auction number, to a secret code for some D'ni vault. Maybe Sharper put them there himself, who knows. But the point of bringing this up... is that while I was running the markers again with my new KI and I realized one marker is placed directly in front of this painting, and I wonder if there's any relation.

Once again... more time has passed, and it's gotten that much more difficult to relate to new explorers exactly what's been going on recently. Someone linked into D'ni for the first time yesterday, and I helped them understand what's been going on between the end of 2003 and now... and it's getting so complicated... so hard to explain each time. This is why I've got a new project on the burner... I'm working together with other explorers to design an archival site where explorers new and old can go and get details recaps of events... when they happened, who was involved, what the results were, and how they affected things.

While "Age Linker's Guide" is a more personal view about the goings on in D'ni, "The Restoration Archive" is meant to be a completely neutral recording of events. It's not meant to be a recording of D'ni history... there are already people devoted to translating and understanding D'ni written records and histories, and discovering the past. The explorers working on The Restoration Archive are more concerned with keeping track of events in modern day D'ni... more pressing and present matters. I'm very excited about this project, and hope to see it take off very soon.

Oh well.. I guess I'd better get back to running markers, just in case my old KI login isn't able to be retrieved. But then again, with the current state of things I'm pretty nervous about losing my CURRENT KI, much less getting my old one back...

Great Zero Update

Posting from D'ni - UruObsession(1) Neighborhood...

I don't think it's been fully recalibrated yet, but as of today the Great Zero has been adjusted to a point where the KI Positioning System works, and we can view coordinates of exactly where in the cavern we are at a given time. Besides this, it is also possible to place our own sets of "Marker Games" now, to test each other's ability to locate and record markers... presumably part of training for the Guild of Maintainers. These features only work if you've completed all fourteen of the GZ Recalibration Missions however... so it seems that not only are we recalibrating the Great Zero itself, but it also involves calibrating individual KIs.

You'll also notice that when linking through the Nexus, it now displays the coordinates of any link in points you have recorded on Ae'gura, as well as the coordinates for your registered neighborhood. I always wondered what all of those zeroes were for in the Nexus... I never even considered that they were coordinates.

There are also new rumors about another Bahro stone being sighted, something unusual in Eder Kemo, and a Relto page from Yeesha manifesting itself. I have yet to confirm any of these however... so for now they will continue to be treated as rumors. More information to come as it becomes clear.

Update: It is now possible to extract photos taken with your KI to a surface PC without using any special software... the images are now saved as surface standard JPEGs, at a default resolution of 800 x 600. My best guess is that Victor did something to do a mass update of the KI firmware... and as much as it helps me out, I'm kind of curious about the reprecussions of changing D'ni technology to match surface standards. But then again, we're already using KIs that have been translated to several surface languages....

Also to follow up the rumors a little more... last time a new Bahro stone appeared it was shortly after the DRC opened the museum up to the public. Perhaps Yeesha and the Bahro like rewarding us for restoring more of the cavern? If so, it might make sense to find another stone now that the Great Zero is in better condition than before.

More DRC Updates

Posting from Teledahn...

Just checking in long enough to report some news. The DRC have updated the timeline on their main page to reflect events up until now. This is the first time in two and a half years that the timeline has been altered. It now mentions the DRC losing funding and the cavern closing, as well as the smaller groups that stayed behind during the "Until Uru" period. It also brings up Yeesha who is (was?) apparently searching for "someone to free the Least". The return of the DRC to D'ni and the election of the DRC Liaisons are mentioned as well.

I think it's rather unusual mentioning Yeesha and her work to free the "Least". The Least are also known as Bahro.... which are the creatures that are often heard moving about the cavern from time to time. But why is that listed for the year 2005? Hasn't her journey ALWAYS been about explorers helping to free them? Or is there something that the DRC knows that most of us don't yet?

I've also noticed that the DRC seem to be encouraging would be explorers to come down to the cavern... and since they're not currently providing their own methods, it's basically encouraging people to pick up a Relto book and choose the path of Yeesha. It's so unusual to see the DRC providing information about joining the explorers in this way.... does this mean that the days of "Authorized Explorers" and "Uru Explorers" are long in the past? If so... then it'll be easier for us to all work together.

Also of note... they've removed any mention of Dr. Watson from the site's pages, except for his blurb on the DRC Bios page. I guess any hope of seeing Dr. Watson return to the DRC and the restoration has pretty much faded away. It's a shame... D'ni was the man's baby. His dream was to see it living again. I hope his dream is realized.... even if he's not around to see it.

Restoration is definitely starting up again... but records indicate that the DRC are now working with about half of the number of restoration engineers as they once were. Because of this, I expect we'll be seeing things take effect quite a bit slowly than before.... but regardless, it's much better than no restoration at all. I'm not complaining, by any stretch of the imagination.

Every day that passes, it's getting harder and harder to relate to new explorers what exactly has gone on up to this point. The revelation of D'ni's reality... the rise and fall of the restoration.... the "Until Uru" and eventual "D'mala"... and now the refunding of the restoration. I think as more time passes, and more explorers come... it's going to be important to have a central location to direct them to learn about the history of the restoration. Not everyone will care mind you... but those who do... well.... let's just say that I'm working on a new idea.

*speechless*

Posting from D'ni - UruObsession(1) Neighborhood...

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, because I cannot even begin to form the words I want to say right now.

The DRC have secured their funding... the restoration is back on full time.

DRC Site Update

Posting from D'ni - Ae'gura...

While this isn't exactly news, it's interesting to note that the DRC have updated their main page to reflect the events currently surrounding D'mala and the search for restoration funding. While there's nothing there that we didn't already know... it's still the first time the DRC have updated their site since June 2004, so it's kind of interesting and promising.

This will be the first time I've been able to get into the cavern during the afternoon (surface time that is) in a while... it's kind of nice. Someone's showing their friend (and new explorer) around the cavern for the first time... I know exactly how they feel right now. That high of showing someone the pub, the great views of Kerath's Arch, the museum, the library, just... the whole city... for the first time is indescribable. This brings me to my next point though...

A few days ago I was up really late in the UruObsession(1) neighborhood chatting with Taba about the past of D'ni and the future of the restoration.... everyone else had linked out or had gone to bed by this time... and we got a visitor. A woman registered as Debbie LeBlanc came in and started asking about how the explorer community as a whole would respond to her company (Petrochem Ind.) using the cavern and ages to harvest unnamed "resources".

Actually, I THINK she said "Petrochem Inc." when she first joined us, but when I called on her about any web presence or anyone I could contact for more company information, she make it clear that it was "Ind" not "Inc". She made it clear that there were "opportunities" for any explorers interested, and that she needed people willing to show her bosses around the ages and help them map out whatever "resources" they were looking for.

Basically she spent most of an hour blowing PR smoke at us, while giving us no real information about what they wanted. Asked how she got here, and she mentioned minding her Relto book at the bottom of a "dusty old tree", and her company using test subjects to see what it was and how it worked. "Not humans" she said... "not animals" she said.... so I called her on this and asked exactly how they tested it then... final result came down to her questioning my mental stability. So we went to the link room, locked her out, waited for her to go away.

Be wary of anyone you might find in the cavern claming to be from Petrochem, it's clear that the good of the cavern or the ages is definitely not a priority to them. Welcome them down as people... help them take the journey and discover the joy of the cavern... but don't welcome them down as a company who wants to profit from D'ni.

And thus ends a post of soapboxing from me...