As announced, now Public Project workers can submit updates too, in fact every one of them did take the offer, thank you! However Designers werent so eager to write these this week

Have fun reading!



Edhellond (/warp Edhellond)


Annúminas (In Progress) - Lead: @Will_em
Annúminas is now under the lead of Will_em, the progress wont be too fast for now, but Artists can ask Will when they want to build a few of the marked out houses.

Calembel (In Progress) - Lead: @Ivan1pl
Poor, market, military and industrial districts are nearly finished. Prison appeared in administration district. Poor house freebuild is finished. But that's not the end of Adventurer jobs! Expect another house freebuild starting soon!
- Ivan1pl

Dol Amroth (In Progress) - Lead: @Demonataz
Demon got himself a new PC, and of course the glorious Windows 8 OS works just perfectly and thus he is not bound to any technical limitations at all at the moment - NOT. Until demon got that stuff sorted out, DSE did set up the long awaited build competition for the military district. Find more info on that >>here<<

Edhellond (In Progress) - Lead: @_Luk
Ruining is in progress. In fact its hard to tell what has the better ambience, ruined or unruined... You should check it out anyway!

Lebennin (In Progress) - Lead: @oth0116
Had a busy week in school so not much progress, working on a plan for villages now.
So (mainly artists) keep your heads up for villages this week!

The uniform grass plain has gotten some more detail in some places. Additionally the river sources at the banks of the White Mountains have been made.
- otho & Finrod

Lossarnach (In Progress) - Lead: @Tyranystrasz
No progress this week, however on the recent staff meeting Tyr said that the possibility to work on may come in the near future.

Misty Mountains (In Progress) - Lead: @Finrod_Amandil
If you look at the dynmap there is one very prominent sand triangle in the misties. This is where I am working on at the moment. Quite some terraforming has already happened, and when this area is done, the first big part of the Misty Mountains, the Mountains of Moria finds to an end. After that this project will continue without a break by tackling the area to the north, covering the Gladden Pass, Hollin Ridge, High Moors of Rivendell and maybe even the Gladden Fields. The reason why this section is next, is because I want to complete the fellowships path.

Pelargir (In Progress) - Lead: @Credoo
No major progress this week, but some of the squares in between the builds have gotten some detail and nice trees. Credoo tries to establish as many house outlines as possible in the near future, to keep you guys busy

Public Projects:

Agar and Udul (In Progress) - Lead: @Mandos
The small town of Agar is completed! Now we set our eyes to Udul and the woodlands surrounding Agar. We will need many Artists to help with the new town, if you would like to help, ask Mandos. Also we might have a job for Adventurers too, we need to bring the roots of the trees down to the ground, look out for this. I would also like the mention @kisos, he helped make the most houses within Agar and has been a great asset. Another person to mention is @DSESGH, he has made some great terrain for Agar and now Udul.
- Mandos

Bandit / Traveler Camps (In Progress) - Lead: @PINT00
We have gotten our two loot tents for the bandit camps and all of the normal tents we need. However, the contest for a leader's tent has been started! Look at >>this thread<< and then ask Pint for a plot. The leader tent contest area can be reached at /warp Camp FB (on plotworld). Not too much progress has been made with the camps on the build world, but we did build some stealthy hiding/look-out places for the bandits. You had better start being careful when you travel between Pelargir and Linhir!
Pint and I would like to thank everyone who participated in both the normal tent and loot tent freebuilds. Hopefully you will be able to see your builds used on the server.
- Ardelenia

Ethring (In Progress) - Lead: @AWOL777
Small progress daily. The main half is nearly complete, and progress on the other side has commenced. Interiors are also being added periodically.
- AWOL777

Lothlórien Vegetation (In Progress) - Lead: @yourie98
Only some progress this week in Lothlórien. The places for all new trees were made, but the trees at most regions have not been pasted in.
- Eriol_Eandur

Shire Trees (In Progress) - Lead: @kisos
The second treebuild is almost done! The last few wych elms need to be perfected and then we can move on to the final trees, which will include Downy Birch and Scots Pines and should go fairly quickly. A big thanks to everyone who has built trees so far, as this has been surreal how many people have helped so far.
- kisos



Current Plotworld Jobs and Projects:

• [Contest] Dol Amroth Military District
• [Contest] Leader's Tent
• [Freebuild] Shire Treebuild

Promotions

Congratulations to Genexos on achieving the rank of Artist! And especially to all that are on the watchlist at the moment: Keep going, there are many candidats with very good chances of getting promoted on the next update!


Resignations
This week I sadly have to announce the resignations of two staff members:

Wollip666: 4th july 2011 it was that wolli joined MCME. If you look at the names that joined around that time, you won't find many of those still on the server. Three years wolli was a staff member, and I am sure it won't have been the last time we saw the last aussie staff member.
All the best for the challenges that await you in your near and far future. As you won't be able to forget MCME, so won't the rest of the community ever forget you.

Lizzy_: In amazing speed Lizzy went through the ranks, Guide - Designer - Enforcer, but much more notably is her passion and time she put into events as the Summer Event, along with many other background activities she did. May it not have been the last google doc of you!


Media of the Week

Luk has added a few but majestic shots to his Media Album. Go and check it out >>here<<, theres also some older shots including a full depiction of Minas Tirith and unruined Osgiliath shots.

The Argonath (/warp Argonath, Rohan pack) by _Luk


@kisos' works get better and more impressive every time he creates some new screens, and that indeed does happen very often lately. Caution: Not everyone may handle the awesomeness that lies behind >>this link<<

Falls of Nimrodel (/warp Falls of Nimrodel, Lothlórien pack) by kisos



New Themed Build

>>ThemedBuild post<<
Erebor Throne Hall





Part 7 - Tengwar: Writing

Last week the entirety of the Tengwar for Sindarin in the 3rd Age was presented and exercised. But there is still one step to take ere you actually can bring your very own writing into existance. In this episode of Edhellen mi Ennorath I will explain two ways of doing this: By handwriting and using computer fonts.

1. Handwriting.
You may be astonished, that the aesthetic writing style of the Tengwar, with the constantly changing width of the lines is fairly easy to recreate, as long as you have the right tool for it. What you need for Tengwar handwriting is a calligraphy pen, which is a fountain pen (using ink) with a broad tip:

This is the pen I am using since a long time already, and I really can recommend it: The rotring ArtPen. Its available in different tip widths; I initially got myself the 2.3mm one which is great for exercising (writing a bit bigger), but for some "normal sized" writing I'd recommend the one with a 1.5mm tip. Of course you can aswell get yourself any similar pen.

Now onto the actual writing. This picture here pretty much says everything you need to know:

Source and more information on hand-writing: http://at.mansbjorkman.net/teng_calligraphy.htm

2. Computer Fonts
When the digital age collides with some hardcore Tolkien nerds, this is what you get: Tengwar Fonts. They can be gotten by simple google searches by free, here's the most popular variants:

• Tengwar Annatar (If used in font style italic you get a nice adaption of the ring inscription style)
• Tengwar Parmaite
• Tengwar Noldor
• Tengwar Sindarin

While installing works just like other fonts, be careful when using these! You may now think you just can select the font as you would do with any other font and then start hitting the keyboard. This won't work! The Tengwar Fonts follow an entirely different system when it comes to keyboard layout, and thus I hardly recommend using the Tengwar fonts via "Insert"->"Symbol", and there pick your needed characters one by one. Note on inserting the vowels: For every vowel there are four variants in the fonts. They need to be added after you added the consonant it shall go onto, and which one to take depends on the width of that consonant.

Exercises

1. Recreate the exercises from >>last Times<<, by hand or in a Text editor using the Tengwar Fonts.
2. The best way to learn the Tengwar by heart and get used to the writing is practice. I once transcribed an entire A4 page, took about 2 hours and after that I didnt need any Tengwar reference anymore. I can't give you an entire A4 page of Sindarin right now, but >>here<< is a list of poems, if you do 2-3 of them, that'll be as good

Scheduled Tours: If you didn't know already: Our guides are running scheduled tours twice a week, every Wednesday at 6pm GMT, and on Saturdays on 9pm GMT. So if you look for a tour and never managed to catch a guide to give you one, those are the dates you gotta go on the server!

Short Story Contest: @Tyranystrasz organised a Short Story Contest. Until the 29th of march you can submit your fan-fiction based on Arda / Tolkiens Lore. The winner can win a gift card and the 3 best stories get featured here in the Times!
For more info read >>this post<<

Times Feedback: Have a thought concerning the presentation of the MCME Times and how it can be improved? Because we are always looking for new ways to mix up and improve the Times experience through any means necessary and, if you have a comment or concern, it's likely that someone else had it as well and just didn't say anything about it. So be sure to message @Finrod_Amandil your thoughts through a PM or directly in this thread.



In honor and gratitude of Wolli and Lizzy I want to point out that the adventure of being a staff member comes in hand with many responsibilities and much time consumption. Or how Tolkien would state that:

Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.
- J.R.R. Tolkien

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