What to say about this fabulous Halloween weekend we had? Forty-eight hours of (almost) non-stop non-role play, forty-eight intense hours of fun shared! Thank you for participating in this weekend of terror and fun!
I will quit my babbling now and come to the point, and reveal one of the biggestt secrets on Atys. Jena is... Damn, wrong page. Ehm, let us talk about what has been going on behind the scenes this past weekend, how we have put this together.
Of course, a big event like this can never be done by one man alone; it is the work of the three teams of Ryzom working together: Dev, CSR and Animation4.
The Dev team worked on the pumpkin hunt. This event, spread over forty-eight hours, gave to the event team the opportunity to organise lots more things.
The events team had free rein, so to speak, to annoy you all day and organise events that had already proven themselves in the five years of Ryzom. But with the latest patch 1.6.0 as you may have noticed, they could make use of several new tools, which offer them countless new possibilities, each more interesting than others.
Right after the reboot starting the events, there was a lot of activity from players, and the events team. They had to work fastIt should be brief, rapid, accurate and monstrous! What better time than Halloween to let rise from the Prime Roots a ghost town, conceived in the twisteds minds of the event team? Event Managers and Game Masters from Aniro, Leanon and Arispotle created three ghost towns on three servers, fictional and fantastic towns that were to be the gathering place for the events of the day and especially night.
Then the day came, and we were present everywhere at once, playing tricks, renaming players, etc. But the biggest part of Saturday's activities started at 18:00 GMT. There, a division of the tasks between the available Event members and CSRs was needed. Who does what, who is responsible for what, etc... But, since everybody chose his role depending of his affinity, everyone had fun in this little planning: Visiting Atys in locations that normally are inaccessible to players, the recreation of the afternoon with little invasions (and a lot of death...) The highlight were the mini-mek races, which was the first time we used one of the new tools for a large-scale event, on all shards simultaneously!
Just before the end of the day, a small invasion of Great Kinchers took place in the ghost town, following an invasion of deceptively fluffy and harmless-looking yubos... Gnihihihahahaha!
Now, about the invasion of the capitals just after the shard restart; oh yes, we were a little bit evil. But we're sure you didn't mind this little surprise, right?
Then there was the pageant of the fictional Battle of the Lake... Stress and coffee were present in copious amounts! First there was the preparation of characters taking part in the battle, and the morning and early afternoon were devoted to their preparation: changing the characters to make them look a few years younger, change their hair, tattoos, rejuvenate them, equip them, craft equipment and jewelry, boost their levels, etc... But the most impressive part was the resurrection of Still Wyler, a symbol for the Saga itself, the first leader of a people to have succumbed to the sadism of the events team. Unfortunately, we sometimes wielded our new and unfamiliar tools somewhat clumsily and which did not do the high levels of stress any good. We presevered however, and when we saw you, players, ready and equipped in large numbers as requested, and playing the game, we renewed our efforts with fresh energy! That is the greatest gift that you have given us this weekend!
Before concluding this report about this special weekend, here are some details for the curious:
The Dev team works hand in hand with the event team in trying to meet the demands of players and the role-play community of Ryzom. With our latest tools released in patch 1.6.0, the events team have put in place:
- A ghost town: the burning city, haunted by ghosts and the site of several events. Its construction required about twenty-five minutes per shard as easily as is possible on the ring, and was done by ten people from the Events and CSR team from all three servers working together, using the new commands to create this unique and magical place. This city has been made live without a need for a patch and without the need for a developer.
- The various invasions: the use of new tools dedicated to the events team has enabled us to create a nice (or sometimes bad ^^) hunt for players. Challenge a horde of evil yubos or goo varinx, which are harmless if you do not tease them. Whether you will defeat all creatures or die yourself, no one knows in advance what will happen or what the event team will do (sometimes, neither to they
)! - Mini-mek races: the use of new web applications permit us to go beyond mere billboards. The start, waypoints and finish were marked by large helixes, each showing a map of the route. Each waypoint has to be passed and interacted with, and this data provides the final ranking. Players can compare their running times with those of their friends. This is obviously just the beginning. The possibilities of such a tool are many: treasure hunts, party poker at the Thesos bar, Miss Atys election... just name it! This application was developed by a volunteer team of PHP in just three days and again, without needing to patch.
- A battle: the massive use of new tools devoted to entertainment has created NPCs to request them to move from one strategic point to another, running or walking, where they would attack players, enemy NPCs or, more interesting, both! Invasions of kitins, bandits, marauders... confrontation between hostile tribes: anything is possible! In short: The RAID (Real-Time Army Invasion Deployment) is not dead! Long live RAID 2!
The Devs will continue to empower your events team to make you enjoy unforgettable moments on Atys, renewing the gaming experience with future patches.
Having seen and understood the feedback we have had from you both in-game and out of game, today we announce that one or more days of events like this weekend are being prepared for the Christmas holidays ( date to be communicated soon(TM)). We have seen that these OOC events broke the routine of Ryzom, and we will use the Christmas season to give you another taste of this!
We wish you a very good game, and look forward to seeing you again, whether it is for Saga role-play events or for OOC festive events like this weekend!
Dev, CSR and Animation4 Ryzom Teams
If you're in the rankings below, contact a CSR in-game so they give you your reward! ( please come with an empty bag )
Top 3 pumpkins hunters of all servers:
- Karu on Arispotle with 1337 pumpkins
- Tikki on Aniro with 1165 pumpkins
- Solaya on Leanon with 1120 pumpkins
- Karu 1337 with pumpkins
- Njuu with 860 pumpkins
- Ricke with 801 pumpkins
- Aeralin with 764 pumpkins
- Rustayn with 673 pumpkins
- Sweetmarie with 666 pumpkins
- Tarquynn with 631 pumpkins
- Prosidio with 620 pumpkins
- Deadelf with 613 pumpkins
- Norbdrakon with 612 pumpkins
