Direction
This week, Direction focused on a variety of projects.

• LumosJared worked on financial updates, direction paperwork, lore direction oversight, and tickets.
• MonMarty worked on In-Game Vampire Progressions that have seen record-high numbers, and various vampiric lore changes and rewrites.
• BillyTheScruffy worked on the PR monitoring and individual direction, overseeing the first podcast recording + participating, planning the last parts of the Borough and Trading Card projects. ETA 2 weeks on both. He also worked on Progression writing/Military Progression Prep, and Noble DM questions and tickets.
• Birdsfoot_Violet worked on lore upkeep and updates, mostly regarding Vampires with the recent server event, and answering tickets.
• CS_Birb worked on the 1.17 project.
• Derpadillo worked on mob development and multiple testing sessions for the REDACTED event, installation of quests for the REDACTED dungeon, training for Quest and Game members on mob development and mulitple plug-ins, and Game dept oversight.
• QGMK hosted Survival Staff meetings and performed individual direction for Game members.

Lore
Lore Updates

• https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Leutz-Vixe Rerelease
• https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Holidays New holidays!
• https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/player-spotlight-acolorfulpigeon.95107/
• First, we’re terminating 43 of the 48 artifacts/mythics from circulation. What this means is that if your character owns and artifact NOT on the list below, you will need to pretend you lost it, it was stolen, or destroyed somehow. The items will not be removed from lore, we are just choosing to remove them from circulation. The non removed items will be:
• – Coraveau (will also immediately be flung into circulation)
• – Greatsword of Vaarda (will stay where it is, but we will add Noble estate assault rules like the Sepulchre, to steal it)
• – Widower’s Direction (whoever sent a ticket about this last, will receive it. I don’t remember who it was. Please make a new ticket)
• – World Crown of Empress Medalleian (stays)
• – Flaming Sword of the Heron (stays)
• The first example Artifact is done https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Andlar
• We will be closing Base Undead applications from this point onwards, because Base Undead will be moving to a completely open affliction ala Vampirism/Cahalism.
• The law on Artifacts has changed: https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Regalian_Law
• Sihai’s Armor Flux has been replaced with Light Mend 3
• Vampire Broods have been standardized to the format introduced with the Cahal update.
• https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/staff-spotlight-cs_birb.95211/

World System Updates:

• https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/archipelago-progression-7-2-a-harrowing-at-the-heart.95161/
• The Lich Lord of the Deep, Desprince of Omnisolifugae, Ashen Lord of the Skies, Frost Lord of the Allvalleys, speaks his most exalted word!
• With the flourishing of Sanguine of the city, the self-proclaimed noble has performed assessments for the increased luxuries of the city and to better spread the new cultures of the Dorkarthians. The current appointments have been made:
• HIRING VAMPIRE GENERALS, the Forlorn Field Marshal. They will guide the larger militias into battle against the uninfected, while smaller retinues will be lead by their respect Desprinces and Desprincesses.
• Louvi’thaea Son of None + Humaira di Civita, the Bloodsmiths. They will construct the instruments of war and the jewels of the incoming nouveau riche.
• Merellien Ravajor’elle, Desprincess of Omnisolifugae. She additionally speaks for Sanguine of the city in the absence of the Lich Lord.
• More appointments will be made as more people are re-educated of their purpose.
• Malaqar Dyrrhis + , the Party Beasts. They are around to keep morale high, and to specifically inspire Sanguine to drink until they fall over or need resuscitating
• The Lord Chancellor has declared a State of Emergency in the wake of the Vampirism incursion. Required changes to laws will be publicized in an emergency decree tonight, however, for the time being the following is in effect:
• The House Deceres Castle is the designated safe-zone. ((There is no path to it, so you have to take the fast travel TP, even if you’re ICly taking the roads or something)) The Lord Chancellor encourages all Nobles to try and take refuge there. Escorts can be arranged.
• The Lord Chancellor enacts a Curfew, encouraging all to stay within their homes, and not travel unless absolutely mandatory.
• The Lord Chancellor immediately grants all Dragon Wardens serving Gwenyth Zylmoira “White Drake” status, conscripting them in the service of an emergency Contingent force.
• The Lord Chancellor requests the service of any Url in the City, to join aforementioned emergency Contingent force.

Event Updates:

• https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/demetrius-on-the-doorstep.95176/

Roleplay Updates:

• https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/demetrius-on-the-doorstep.95176/
• All Abilities that allow for long distance communication of any kind are disabled as the Exist Arken are getting closer to the city and want to paralyze long distance communication – This will save us a lot of meta accusations and enforcement.
• Anyone who gets Vampire or Cahal infected, may have the CHOICE to speed up the infection process to instantly, or 10 minutes, or whatever time frame between instant and the full 3 days.

Game
Here are some updates from this week:

1. We are removing Protection 5 diamond and netherite armor from the economy! We will be reimbursing 1000 regals for each diamond or netherite armor piece with protection 5 you turn in until the end of August! All we will do is replace protection 5 with protection 4, give it back to you, gift you 1000 regals, and send you on your merry way. Starting in September, any Protection 5 diamond or netherite armor piece we find is at liberty to be destroyed without reimbursement. If you wait, for example, and try to sell it to an unsuspecting victim to gain money, the deal will be refunded. To turn in a protection 5 item, please place it in your backpack and make a ticket on the factions discord (/discord in game) by sending a message to the Ticket Bot on the right, since changing the enchantments is something only a limited number of staff can do. In game tickets will likely be missed due to staff availability reasons.
2. The second of three PvP tournaments was held on August 21st! Congratulations to GhostlyShearsy (1st), yeetius (2nd), and Kniferharm (3rd)! Sign up for the other Tournament, 3v3 here: https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/summer-pvp-tournaments.94799/
3. Some mob updates this week! The OrcAxeThrower now throws an axe which will hit you. Pink Boss Mobs (HulkingBoneHorror, Elementalist, Judy The Corruptor, Umbral Warden, Bwuhhh, Hadarrian Necromancer) are now in both worlds. They have been buffed to 7500 health, so bring a small army when fighting them! Their drops have also been increased. Red Mobs (Captain and Kathar Chaos Knight) are in the worlds and have 8000 health! Remember, every Boss mob has a weakness!
4. We are nearly ready to release the next 10 batch of levels for Gauntlet Dungeons! Keep an eye out for an annoucement! We have decided to NOT implement the next 10 levels in sequence with the first 10. Instead, the next 10 levels to be released will be in a different “pack” and can be started even if you have not completed Level 10 of the currently released levels.
5. Send a big Thank You to one of our Game Staff members who is retiring this week due to life commitments, NotchyHerobrine. He joined our team August 14 2020 (!), and we appreciate all he has done for the server!

• QGMK aided players, coordinate Gauntlet Dungeons progress, coordinated the reduction of protection 5 to protection 4, investigated players, and handled reports and appeals.
• BlueChaos aided players, developed new MythicMobs (specifically boss mobs), hosted PVP tournaments, and trained game staff members.
• Effloresce_ aided players and updated mythic mobs (Added CaffeinatedSheep, AlorianAthlete1, AlorianAthlete2, and their respective sound skills and item drops to the repo).
• skhosh aided players, answered help chats, handled war declarations, and fixed Gauntlet levels.
• Sevak aided players, aided with protection 5 reduction, hosted PVP tournaments, updated the weekly PVP scoreboard, and brainstormed ideas for [REDACTED].
• Talantius aided players and edited upcomming market stalls at FortPresford.
• Daddy_Bill aided players, created items for the 1.17 crate, and developed MythicMobs (debugged an issue in my own scripts where fields weren’t persisting correctly after initialization).
• Rahm_Kota aided players, created items for the 1.17 crate, performed game staff training, and tested MythicMobs.

PR
The PR department have been busy this week! We made progress on a lot of our personal projects as well as finishing our department wide assignments. Notably, the voting messages birb asked for were completed and the first episode of the Massivecast podcast was recorded.

• Kirishark submitted the PR round-up, contributed to the voting messages for birb, reminded players to vote, answered tickets and recorded the podcast.
• Battlebrawn interviewed players for the faction spotlight, shot content for all platforms and contributed to the voting messages.
• Femma contributed to the voting messages for birb, shot content for all platforms, recorded the podcast and upkept social medias.
• Seoulmate did the weekly round-up, upkept the Facebook page and processed voting poll results.
• Northern_Ireland published the player spotlight, worked on the staff spotlight and contributed to the votimg messages for birb.
• Wan_Xia contributed to the voting messages for birb and worked on implimenting custom 3D models.
• Wynstiel recorded pvp content, contributed to the voting messages for birb and upkept social medias.
• Hierophant contributed to the voting messages for birb.

Quest
This week, Quest has been working on Mythic Mobs for an in-game event revolving around the Ezikiel Vampiric Bloodline.

• Derpadillo did the Mythic mob writing for Ezekiel
• Iyyuishi did Gauntlet writing and testing for Netherpack.

Tech
This week, tech has been working on MassiveRaces

• FourThirteen has been working on Factions so players can click a GUI text button to accept faction invites. He has also worked on stopping horses from trampling crops in land you do not own. Finally he has been working on MassiveRaces on the development of allowing sprouting aura to be toggleable.
• XVW has been working on the Kathar rework where he is turning the ultimate into a level 3 ability and introducing a new ultimate ability for Kathar.