Greetings everyone. As announced last night, a broad update is overdue. Some of

you are uneasy so I shall allay your fears and address a few specifics. At the

end of this post, there is exciting news as we enter October.

Still here, still working, still love Avalon

It is understandable how some feel we lost interest or perspective, given the

nature of our work. While Genesis has been on sabbatical (more about this

later), dedication to the realm has not wavered. While it is true that much of

the current Avalon poorly reflects our intentions, there is a balance we daily

strike between realm patching and executing the plans in previous News BBs.

The land's direction has not changed and throughout this period of

transformation, we encourage reports and personal investigations into any

issues that may exist. For those who have made reports, what could be fixed

quickly has been and what affected everyone had taken the highest priority. At

the expense of quick patching anything and everything, we have focused on

bringing global improvements and modernising Avalon to be more compatible with

the outside world.

Summer in Avalon

First, what has been happening? In July and August, there was one

time-consuming problem that prevented attention elsewhere.

Following work in the spring, our data store was hitting limits and corrupting

itself. The added complexity of our new systems since 2014 made it all the more

time-consuming to remedy and, even after fixing quest items and random item

disappearances, there were still issues of data integrity. Satsuki and Avaviosi

both had whole inventories wiped that had to be restored -- Satsuki multiple

times, which accounted for the 24-hour rollbacks for everyone in July. Few

would have noticed the two more recent ones about 30 and 15 days ago. They were

the first pinpoint restorations in Avalon's lifetime and this development was

thanks to the work on Jasper.

Tribute

The inventory losses were due to corrupt items created as legion tributes.

While the fix remains unverified, if you are collecting tribute, do so

carefully and not with en-masse aliases. Tributes ought to be minimal now.

However, they resist efforts to disable them and further tweaking could have

dire results. It is best you leave them be -- whether infiltrating or

collecting -- or at least keep it to a playful minimum.

Stability

Even should losses happen again, there is now in place a wide safety net for

everyone, supported by an intense backup cycle. So far, it is working well.

Avalon now has assured continuity heading into the autumn. This improvement was

part of a broader effort to bring Avalon's data to 21st century standards. We

have a map for how that data can be manipulated and some of our tools are

already in production use. The results are looking promising and with some time

to shake out bugs, it should be very robust.

As we entered September, most issues remaining are not systemic; the one

remaining is specific, rare, and requires a different solution.

Economy

We will be postponing the rebalance for another month, since there are not

enough barons in each city at present and not all of the cities are prepared.

With that in mind, it is worth informing everyone of what will be happening so

they can help their governments.

The economic rebalance of the realm was privately discussed with all of the

city barons except Silverfalls, who failed to field a representative and so

Joely was chosen.

The rebalance involves three changes:

1) Commodities in excess of 10k are to be bought by the Pantheon from each city, at a fixed global price agreed between the cities and Pantheon

2) Crafting requirements will be adjusted for realism and scarcity

3) Sheds will have a maximum floor capacity, likely 1000 or less.

These changes have four major effects:

1) Commodities will have natural rarity again, obtainable by village trade or labour; tribute remains off throughout the adjustment period

2) Cities will be on roughly equal footing with commodities, driving competition for resources

3) Ailing city treasuries receive funds to invest in citizens and buildings, which may soon inspire a Ministry of the Interior.

4) Thievery can be rife without losing everything in one heist.

Most cities have started collating their commodities, deciding what price would

be fair for each commodity, and discussing how they will manage the new

buildings required. For those with few barons active, citizens interested in

the economy should step up and help their government.

Once it is in place, we will re-enable village production on the same day.

Construction will be permitted shortly after and each city will then build

their many new sheds. This state of the economy will then be the status quo

until dynamic trade economics are implemented in 2018.

Skills

Skill issues are extant and help with identifying undiscovered issues always

helps. However, some are seeing them as intentional now. This is simply not the

case. If an abiity is doing something exceptionally better, it is very likely

on the list \"to convert\" to the soft skill system devised by Genesis in 2015.

Easy rule of thumb is to measure one ability against another of the same

profession or an equivalent in another profession and compare for balance

timings, restrictions, etc.

We are aware some are inattentive to what is acceptable, blinded by

self-interest and the promise of a win. Do try to restrain yourself a little

when your opponent asks about something odd. It will help us pinpoint the exact

issue. Emails to cornelius@avalon-rpg.com with a log are the best kind of

reports.

Warfare

Legion training is off since the enlistment boom filled up every banner

allowable worldwide. You do not need thousands of banners nor men grouped by

500 each. Marshalls should clear out empty banners or merge them if they wish

to keep histories. It is safe to lump them up and remove their

dispatches/training regimens. Your legions will receive blanket assignment of

full skills when training returns. In the meantime, continue to enlist and

equip your legions, as both have meaning for the future.

PURCHASE, PROCURE, and Crowns

The PURCHASE system is still in manual control, to ensure there are no faults

in processing, until the integrations with Jasper are complete. The site,

https://avalonrealtime.com/ is our portal for secure card entry and

subscriptions should be made there followed by a MSG or tell to me. Use \"Pay

with Card\" to simply store details without being charged. You will need to do

this to purchase crowns.

You can purchase arbitrary crown amounts now and CURRENCY has a table that

effectively gives a rapid discount curve. That means using crowns to PROCURE

lessons (1 crown : 3 lessons) is now the cheapest method for immediate

advancement, by far.

If you ever have a query about this system or related to it, please get in

touch directly with me.

Curiosity Shop inventory

Over the coming month, we will be taking a large-scale review of the curiosity

shop, as I announced on MOTD some weeks ago. This review will include the

services, trinkets, micro purchases, descriptions, listings, and detailed help

files. Some of those lists have become unwieldy. Those products which have

lingered in the shop untaken will likely be removed and the listing reduced to

be tightly focused on what most enriches Avalon.

Most of these items will change to a limited lifespan, like the fireflies were

originally announced to be. Anyone currently or shortly obtaining anything from

the shop will retain what they have, with their purchases remaining timeless.

Learning

The issue with daily lesson gain was fixed up last month, but LEARNING (an old

command) reported that crowning was still automatic, which was both false and

contrary to the earlier News BB. It now shows automatic gain is off, correctly.

LEARNING also reports 1000 lessons for Beginner to Ultimate, which is just

bollocks. The metric is as follows:

- Beginner to Grand-Master: about 300 lessons with darsurion

- Grand-Master to Ultimate: about 550 lessons with darsurion

- Ultimate to Crowned: about 450 lessons with darsurion

This is a permanent state of affairs. The curve for growth should be healthy

and in keeping with Avalon history -- in fact, about 20% quicker and far more

intuitive. Expect crowning to be something special and to remain so. There is

no further change expected to the learning curve, but tweaks to maximal gain

per day may be needed in 2018, to ensure enough time learning your abilities

properly, by use, which will give back some meaning to seniority.

Address of HELP SECONDS, HELP SADISM

The concerns regarding persecution and abuses of players using two or more

characters to help themselves, are both being addressed with the parties

involved. Hyperion is formally deputised to come down hard on sadism and

seconds abuse as of a few days ago. You may address your concerns to him and

leave me a MSG in case he is unavailable.

Trinket/PURCHASE bashing and demonising

In light of Hellchaser's sentence to the Underworld for demonising and

trying to publicly shame Krystal into fighting naked, with malicious and

probably lecherous motives, I will address a vital policy change:

Bitching about someone spending money is now equivalent to trolling, spamming,

and gross immaturity. Punishment will be severe and without leniency.

Bashing and demonising people for owning trinkets, spending money in game, how

much they spend or your own opinion about what they have hidden away or how

much Avalon receives from them are all deeply insulting to other mortals and

the realm. It is unequivocally malicious and has no justification. Trinkets

prolong life and combat, often to alleviate the need to code a client but not

give offensive advantages. It makes up for not being a programmer and expands

the reach of those otherwise unable to enjoy combat with the less accepting of

your species. Far fewer of these trinkets exist than many claim and none with

such vast consequence as rumoured. I have seen first-hand blame of trinkets for

what were simple Seer curses, Oracle winds, thieves, and good teamwork. Any

item with offensive advantage you will not see in the shop. There exist

artifacts, many of which gifted throughout the ages, from an innocent moose and

unicorns, to flaming bows and other rewards.

Those are quite different to a pair of sandals that let you zoom easily, which

are like any other ability used by human or client. Like all abilities used

well, they can feel impossible to defeat. This is the charm of Avalon balance,

which intentionally makes you awe-inspiring. You all have abilities like that

in your professions. Learn to use them well and your impossible enemy will be

miraculously a lot more manageable.

I do not want to see such open slander become an issue again.

Jasper web client near completion

This month of September has been spent almost entirely on the other sides of

Avalon. Jasper has gone from idea to product rapidly. Instead of releasing a

basic dashboard, we opted to continue with difficult development in Jasper and

provide a complete MVP for both desktop and mobile browsers.

It is the first substantial evidence of modernisation that will be truly

different in Avalon's history: our first dedicated client. Hot on the heals of

the web client will follow the dedicated mobile app for Android and iOS,

releasing us all from the evil clutches of Blowjob and Arserammer.

We expect a beta version of the web client to be completed in October. One of

its key features is offline messaging. In Avalon, the aura state presently

shows who has been online; with Jasper the aura will signify someone is

available and reachable. When the web client is stable long enough, it will

fully replace Umbra.

Genesis and Historic Events

This autumn also welcomes back Genesis from his year sabbatical at a time of

great importance. Born out of the development on Jasper, a realistic solution

to the issues in the realm emerged between us. There is an accompanying

opportunity and event, which he will explain in more detail shortly.

Without giving too much away, this coming phase of development will pair

releases with investing significant time in Avalon's future, both in

and out of realm. We have an exciting programme prepared for these coming months.

Conclusion

As for 28 years and always, making Avalon the finest and most enviable place to

be is at the heart of all our endeavours. There is much still to do and a vast

realm to bring to heel. Listening to mortaldom and fixing prevailing issues is

a part of that. Some of the most insidious problems lingering since early 2017

were fixed and many of you were integral to our progress by calm, patient

reporting.

The summer, though brief, was witness to the introduction of thorough hourly

data backups and redundancy, the ability to emergency restore lost possessions

without a rollback, mapping between in-game and externally, mailing and

password recovery near complete, and the landmark progress on the web app and

its accompanying services. While developing the app, we found a realistic

solution to clearing out every item, rune, herb, skill, quest, and other such

issue, while also cleaning up much of the Avalon experience.

These changes begun in March ensure the realm lasts another 30 years and

regains its ascendency. The narrative of 2017 will doubtless be about Jasper

and this would be news enough but for a few other key events all happening

together now. Genesis will explain in more detail the radical events to take

place, which stand with and rival the news of Jasper's web app. It will be

transformative and take the beauty of this world to mobile and beyond.

Now is a time for envy: Avalon is on the cusp of a singular moment in its

history that will never be matched.

Cornelius, the all-consuming

Written and shown unedited exactly as rendered by text based game bulletin board on Avalon Online RPG and by my hand on the 16th of Springflower, in the year 1436.