Staff Meeting

Yesterday saturday the Designer team sat together to discuss a large number of things. This here is a quick summary of that over-3-hour-long meeting we had.

• Artist promotion committee: We were able to state that so far the newly formed committee (currently consisting of BWOT, Eriol and Darki) is working quite well in reviewing and deciding on which Artists to promote. A vital part of it is however that all Designers take notes when an Artist applicant is doing a good job, so for all the applicants: Whenever you are really putting some effort into something, ask the Designer you got the job from to note down some positive feedback on you!
  
  
• Artist and Designer buddies: We have decided to (re-)introduce a buddy system for both Artists and Designer. A buddy is a player that coaches a newly promoted player and helps him learning the ropes. For all upcoming Designer promotions another Designer will get his buddy, for the Artists we will be reaching out to the Foreman, asking whether they would be interested in getting a buddy role.
  
  
• Changes to the Foreman rank: We have discussed it for a while now, and have made a final decision yesterday: 1) The Foremen will get access to WorldEdit, with a limit of max. 100’000 blocks per operation to prevent major mistakes. 2) The Foreman rank was initially designed to be placed between Artist and Guide. Due to the way it has evolved since its creation, the Foreman rank will be conceptually moved all the way towards the creative branch of ranks and will not be associated with Guides anymore (which it practically did never do anyway). This means that Foremen will no longer have access to the Guide plugins.
  These two changes will be implemented as soon as possible.
  
  
• Changes to ranks and permissions: @QuantaCube first mentioned the idea of making the rank system more flexible by making it possible to add additional permissions to a rank. This is an idea that we overall thought to be very interesting, and we will definitely look into the details of an altered system.
  The rough concept that’s currently under discussion is that the ranks and permissions are separated and can be assigned independently. Thus it would be possible to give an Artist that switched over from being Guide, additional access to the Guide plugins (and vice versa), or permit a Foreman or even Artist to be able to voxel, and help out with the terrain. However these would really rather be exceptions and individual cases. In the course of this alteration we also consider changing the term “rank” to “role”, as that prefix mainly indicates what functions and tasks this player intends to take up. This is still a quite early idea and it’ll take some time to specify it in more detail. If you want to voice your ideas, you can do that in this thread: On ranks and 'Badges'
  
  
• New Project supervision procedure: Very soon after BWOT’s promotion he conceived a way to keep track of the ongoing procedures. This consists of a google spreadsheet, which he will fill out together with the project leaders, and is being kept up to date. It includes informations such as which stages the project is comprised of and at what status these stages stand, who is working as leader on the project and what are open issues. Additionally there will be occasional polls, both among staff and public ones, that offer everyone to give a quick indication on whether you like the way the project is heading.
  
  
• RP news: In terms of texture and resource pack changes there is currently a big change being undertaken that will merge the old Gondor pack and the new one into one RP for all of Gondor. More details can be found here: Gondor RP Update Thread [v2.4]
  After that is done the focus will again lie on the creation of the Mordor Resourcepack.
  
  
• 32px Gondor RP: BWOT has started the undertaking of creating a variant of the new Gondor RP in 32px resolution. If this sounds like the perfect opinion for you to use your texturing / image editing skills to leave a mark on every build in Gondor, be sure to reach out to BWOT over the Forums or Discord!
  
  
• Realism / build tricks: We plan on reviving the MCME Builderschool, which is a set of courses on how to build all sorts of things in Middle-earth. We want to include the many small things that have often be done wrong in Dol Amroth recently, so that we can teach these to all current and new builders beforehand so we do not need to correct them afterwards anymore. Stay tuned for more news on that! If you’re an experienced Artist and have some ideas on what could still be added to the Builderschool, please reach out to BWOT!
  
  
• Teaching classes: There is a new external platform which offers lessons on all sorts of Minecraft-related topics. BWOT has discovered that and suggested that with all the experience we were able to make so far we could go and teach some topics ourselves, and in return can advertise MCME to the attendees. Right now we’re thinking about what subjects may be interesting to teach and whether we have someone among us that would be interested in teaching it. More news to come!

BWOT here in this section of the Times for a change, and I am pleased to see that there are still promotions that happened in these last two weeks from the massive amount of rank changes from last time.

Slowlex: Congratulations on getting to the Purple Legion. You are one of two to go through this more rigorous system, with MatthewVP being the other. You've worked very hard and we are really happy that you will be joining the building team and can contribute to the community even more. Make sure that everybody congratulates @Slowlex_ as he has been trying for a long time for this rank.

MatthewVP: Congratulation to @MattewVP who joined the Purple Legion Last Thursday after almost 3 years of being on MCME. Matthew was helped by AndrewPioneer to obtain the ever popular Commoner role and then Artist; “I always wanted to help build on this server so I decided to shoot for artist”. Matthew’s first job was the ever so fun task of dusting working under QuantaCube. We hope he does a great job and look forward to see more of his work!



Now as it will become a custom we have two interviews; the “First Impressions Interview” and the “Meet the Regulars Interview” where I (BWOT) will be interviewing a new adventurer about their experience on MCME and one of our most “funny” players on MCME. Our regular this edition is actually an oldie; he recently got re-promoted and has a very crass sense of humor. Can you guess who it is? Its @ooitsbirdo, the Royal Foreman of Her Majesty the Queen! For our “First Impressions Interview,” we would like to welcome @BigGreenMan. We hope you enjoy!

Interview with @ooitsbirdo

Question 1: How did you find MCME?

Google... isn’t that how most people find servers

BWOT: Wow how interesting...

Question 2: What was your experience like as an Adventurer?

It was great, had some amazing people to talk to like yodog, Ivan, Tyran and many more like thomas, gadget and ming. We just built up a friend group who would talk and do stuff together and just make the server a lot more fun. That's what made me want to stay and come on day after day, the people I talked to.

Question 3: What made you want to become a Foreman?

It was a time where I got all lazy and I didn’t have the spirit to do much building, but I still wanted to contribute by helping commoners get to artist. That’s something I strive to achieve. This factor was the reason why that when I got foreman I gave sooooo many jobs, for example to Lindolas and Robz, that's what I enjoy most; helping people improve.

Question 4: What is your favorite thing about being a Foreman?

Kind of answered in the question before, so I'll give a more funny answer for this question, I honestly as a foreman don't have to do anything... wait... want me to build a house in DA for an artist + build day... naaaaaaaa "Oi andrew want to build a house m8".

BWOT: Haha so funny… *types into chat /demote ooitsbirdo to OB*

Question 5: Where is your favorite place on MCME?

Favourite place.. emmm ... Ard... I mean Osgiliath. I spent sooo... long on that project it has a special place in my heart

Question 6: Who is your favorite character in LOTR or the Hobbit?

My **Censored** Lord, friend; Gandalf. Boi follows his nose to the nearest pipeweed, sound like Dav3, but less Dutch.

**DISCLAIMER**
These questions were answered after a few pints of great German beer.

First Impressions Interview
Report by BWOT

So this week, I have the second “First Impressions Interview” with one of our “newer adventurers”: @BigGreenMan , thank you so much for offering to do this interview and spending your time to answer these questions.

Question 1: How did you find the server?

I found the server because I loved Lord of the Rings and I knew there just had to be a server where they recreated Middle Earth so I looked it up and found this one!

Question 2: What were your impressions of the community on the server when you first joined?

My first impressions, when I first joined, was that they were very welcoming and if I asked them a question there would always be one or two people that would answer immediately.

Question 3: What was your impression of our finished projects; Minas Tirith and the Shire?

My first impression of the finished projects was that I was shocked; the amount of detail and the scale of everything. There were even hidden little rooms and every house had an interior.

Question 4: What was your impression of our current projects such as Dol Amroth, Moria and technically Mordor?

My impression of the work being done in projects showed me that the community was still alive to this day, and I would like to join the building jobs.

Question 5: So overall what was your impression of MCME?

My impression of MCME is that it is one of the best servers I have ever been on, with a great community, and mind blowing builds.



So we got some good ones as always. Make sure you show some special recognition towards the winners of the week! They’ve presented exemplary displays of our server’s creative potential! Give a hand to these winners!

If you are wondering who takes around 90% of all the Times photographs every week then you now know its @Pants_of_Sindar . Je does an amazing job and so the Media of the Week title shall go to him this edition. Great job mate and keep it up.


This edition we will still have two winners as that means one for each week and therefore theme-build. For the theme-build of last week, The Pits of Isengard we have Driffen. Weirdly enough there is nothing in the pits he has made yet however he did re-create the whole tower of Isengard in his so pretty impressive. Great Stuff!


Now for the winner of the Forest Gate theme-build …. it’s DoctorDoam. He did a magnificent job in creating this theme-build and also to be fair had some of the best pits in the Pits of Isengard TB, however Driffen slightly outdid him in that one.


For the editions Freebuild of the week, I (BWOT) would like to showcase the Artist Stronghold at /warp artist-base. It was a huge project started by me. It has a lot of quirky and fun features so go check it out. It's /rp g. **DISCLAIMER** It's still going, so if you are an artist: contact @ryttyr if interested.



Themed Build
Theme: Amon Hen
Resource Pack: Rohan
Duration: 1 week
Link: #7/18 - Amon Hen


MCME Audiobook
The Audiobook, hosted by @TI_020601 is taking place regularly on Saturday evenings, 8:20pm GMT, unless announced otherwise in this thread: The New Audio Book



Athelas

Athelas is a healing herb, also known as Kingsfoil or Asëa Aranion, that grew throughout Middle-earth.

Athelas was first brought to Middle-earth by Númenóreans, but by the end of the Third Age the knowledge of its healing properties was lost among all but the Rangers of the North and the Elves, and was commonly considered by most men and hobbits to be a useless weed. According to folklore in Gondor, it is especially powerful in the hands of the king. It was used by Aragorn when he secretly entered Minas Tirith upon his return to Gondor to heal those (such as Merry) who had been touched by the Black Breath, an act that enhanced his reputation and strengthened his claim to the crown. The rhyme of Gondorian lore about athelas is:

Aragorn also uses athelas to ease the pain of Frodo's wound when he is stabbed by a Morgul-blade at the Weathertop camp. The scent of the leaves also calms the minds of the other hobbits. Athelas is also used after Moria when Aragorn tends Frodo's and Sam's injuries. After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn used athelas in The Houses of Healing to revive Faramir, Lady Éowyn, and the hobbit Merry, who were all under the shadow of the Black Breath. Some Men of Gondor use an infusion of athelas for headaches.



DOMESTIC STRIFE LEADS TO RAZING OF TOWN

Three days ago, the fallen Maia Sauron the Deceiver, formerly known as the Black Hand, the Necromancer, Gorthaur the Cruel, et al. led a mixed Man-Orc army against his former colleagues and friends entrenched in aptly-named city Ost-in-Edhil.

Sauron was last seen one hundred years ago fighting with his lover and confidante, Celebrimbor of Eregion. Celebrimbor was last seen fighting for his life at the center of the city two hours ago as Orcs burned down as much as they could in a city mostly made of stone. The cause of their strife was unknown but is assumed to have been dire.

“This is really shocking,” kinswoman Galadriel (née Artanis, née Altáriel, née Nerwen) said when reached for comment. “We had no idea that this man was secretly Gorthaur, much less that he had not, in fact, come in peace.”

Sauron the Deceiver, formerly identified as Aulendil, Artano, and Annatar, could not be reached for comment.

Written by RaisinCaiin and saliache for the ‘Tater’, Beleriands finest news source!



Howdy folks, just want to let you guys know that we do have multiple platforms that represent MCME. One of those being Twitter! If you have an account, make sure to follow MinecraftMiddleEarth (@MCMiddleEarth) | Twitter for some additional content revolving around the community!

For those of you without Twitter, fear not!!! We are also represented on Facebook! Like us here: Minecraft Middle-Earth

Now, make sure you give us a diamond on Planet Minecraft! The more popular this thing is, the more help we receive Minecraft Middle Earth Minecraft Server


Artist
Want to leave your mark on MCME in a blocky way? Apply for artist on the forums today!

If you have any questions about becoming and being an Artist, then please ask any designer, we are 50% of the time willing to listen to you , and any current Artist.

Guide
Just to reiterate the message from last week, the Guides are looking for more members in the rank of teal. What could you gain from being such a rank on a BUILD server you may ask yourselves?

A plethora of things. You are the face of MCME! Without the rank of guide, we don’t attract nearly as many new players and those responsibilities are shifted onto busier shoulders. We are here to keep people interested and make MCME as fun as possible without distracting the focus of the server. Think that sounds like you?

Just click Guide and apply today!