Copied from the Vale post: https://vale.avalon-rpg.com/2017/12/31/as-2018-and-30th-anniversary-approach/

The 30th Anniversary approacheth

With the approach in October 2018 of the big Three Oh, we have a series of events planned, for which the Battlesands before Christmas were a taster. One more Battlesands will precede the first Gem quest in two years and from then on a consistent stream of them we expect to run throughout the year. There will be an early newsletter after warfare is reactivated. We have all other pieces of the puzzle except economics back in action and we'd like to encourage our veterans to spread the word to come back and get involved. There is a lot that has happened and even more to come.

The dynamos of Avalon are pumping and fuming ever harder.

Warfare and Insurrections

We fully expect some rough patches when warfare returns and the Battle Isle will be opened early after the New Year for everyone to test. Here is a quick preview of how warfare has changed since last it was seen prior to the Februrary 2016 enforced peace.

- legions have a battle line front and back, which is comprised of a portion of their men based on their formation

- legions have an attack \"queue\" based on who attacks them and who they are ordered to attack, across their battle lines, allowing large legions to obliterate little ones easily (the reason for the enforced peace)

- legions engage each other's battle lines in regular succession to create fatigue and health damage; fatigued soldiers are hurt more easily, health determines loss of soldiery

- the mounted, scout, artillery, cluster, and guard formations have a purpose specific to deployments with certain equipment like steeds, catapults, and light equipment

- insurrections will be annual

- the strength of a village or town is based on the population, as determined by the size of that village or town in square yards / important rooms, similar to tribute of men and coin

- population will play into their tribute capability as before and their economic prices (what they *need* to survive versus happy to sell or give in tribute)

- for the time being, insurrections will have no means of prevention; they will always happen each year, regardless of foreign presence

- legion movement will have a corollary to the rate of men dying, the distances crossed, and how many men or other legions are in the location -- 60x50 legions are slower than one 3000 legion, but a room of 500 will move quicker

New Crafting Skills

The new crafting skills are prepped and ready for release after New Year's. They are the following:

- *Crafting*: the creation of permanent or long-lifespan items that are used for enchantment or music: instruments and jewellery

- *Industry*: the creation of tools (hammer, saw, nails, etc) and essential equipment (backpacks, pouches, belts)

- *Haberdashery*: the creation of clothing (shirts, codpieces, whatever) and costumes (plumes, halos)

- *Carpentry*: the creation of large installations (augers, ploughs, wagons, and cabinets)

These skills replace Labours crafting, which was a long-term stand-in. You will have to learn the crafting skills to CRAFT. State ministry and Crowned Labours will no longer be able to craft whatever they please. This is an important step to legitimise crafting as part of Avalon life and community.

As part of the new economic relationship of perishable items, each ability in the crafting skills exposes REPAIR to remove decay from items of that type, at the cost of using a commodity from that item type's requirements. For example, you can REPAIR SHIRT and if it is a cotton shirt, it'll require one cotton to repair. *Weapons and armour will move to this mechanism soon enough.*

CRAFT templates will all be known to the world. There will be only divinely hidden ones that do not show. Templates that were once restricted will be open to all unless specifically marked as special by divinity, in which case they must have a copy available on which to base creation of a duplicate.

Future of Crafting Skills

MASTERCRAFTMEN (the deed of reaching all crafting skills, Farming, and Labours at Crowned Ultimate) will be able to submit templates by an automated system of approval, for consideration by the upper pantheon. This will follow with the economic rebalance.

Lastly, the Crafting skills will incorporate future abilities regarding trade in their particular item. One such idea, not formally planned yet, is for dynamical trading to be made visible, in all its splendour, as a snapshot at the expense of some lesson credits, to give you an immediate edge in trading and arbitrage. Industry is the candidate for this particular ability, around Grand-Master or Legendary. Other ones as and when they suit the realm's needs will appear.

The economic rebalance in later 2018 Q1 will see the item requirements shift slightly towards what is more realistic. It is part of the design for larger or more complex items to require pieces of another. Cotton fluff turned to bolts of cotton, which are necessary to create dresses, as an example. Carpentry will be the first to require this kind of many-stepped crafting.

CURRENCY and trinkets

We are still honing the list of trinkets and how crowns operate in the world and, as announced in the previous update, we will be releasing a simpler curve for CURRENCY that is 2:1 with reductions above the 100-250 USD point. Purchased crowns will be transferable using TRANSFER, officially, and have optional notation you can read back in TRANSFERRED for senders/recipients to know how and why they moved their purchased crowns. Subscription crowns will also be nontransferrable crowns just as chapter rewards. Paid crowns (as in purchased directly) will always remain transferrable for use as presents.

Update on Novicehood and Returnees

The first returnee chapter is in, with a refresher of all the key commands a mortal will need, and the novicehood chapters up to the first six LW chapters (i. e. the first 10 chapters of a novice from newborn to badge-prized MW) are fully tuned and producing lovely kiddies.

We want all seniors to know that BADGE has changed significantly. You can only badge a novice if their next unfinished task is one of the badge tasks. You can badge multiple times in succession, provided it is next.

We have seen a seismic change in our quality of new players, despite Christmas as a slow period. There is more curiosity and readiness to leap into the fray, no pacifists, and a high number of trial and error situations that denote engagement with all five meta of Avalon.

In the past we had over *100 new characters to 1 new apprentice*, most of them sponsored and casual chatters who faded away. It is now closer to **4-8 new characters to 1 new apprentice** and some are truly digging deep into Avalon early. This is great to see and it is flooding all of the guilds with new members.

Beware as January approaches, this will get real. It now depends on seniors learning to manage their stream of novices well and remain positive amidst their own life events. Contact Cornelius directly if you want tips on good novice management. Let's get these taps flowing at full force, everyone!

Sponsorship Cost

End of January will see the enabling of no-credit when a sponsorship expires. Keep in contact with who you sponsor and aware that sponsorship is a model to keep playing in exchange for your time and their positive impact. HELP SPONSORSHIP has been updated to reflect the correct tone of voice of sponsorships and how it should be viewed, with mention of the system's implementation.

There is a new command for determining sponsorship cost, which the princes know and will be revealed when it is ready for public consumption. The cost of a sponsorship will be based on the amount of time someone plays, their standing (composite of skill, combat, experiences, etc), and the existence of other active characters with heavy play. Reductions for those subscribed on other characters will remove that from the balance, but that will not be carte blanche for one subscription and sixteen seconds. That will be a costly and dishonest endeavour, which this system will penalise heavily.

As part of this initiative is encouraging everyone to follow * HELP HONESTY* if they make a second, and if teaching a novice, to trust it is someone new. These really are new people coming through and shouldn't be treated with the suspicion of the accolade days. Let them smooth into the realm naturally. You'll find them asking of their own accord about such things as sponsorship and subscription.

Specialisations

Some professions may have noticed old specialisations showing fewer abilities and Apprentice level in *SKILLS*. All specialisations are being rationalised into skill ranks and proper skills shown in *AB*. For those who are guildmasters, Paradigms, or rightly at a high or maximum level in that skill, they will be grandfathered. There are instances of those with the skill, such as Shadows, where nobody had it in any meaningful way nor was it active, and that will be a new adventure into abilities. Nothing has been lost in this situation and it is better it is gained gradually and learned.

Active gain: repeatables and upcoming tasks

With warfare will come flagging again and we'll be introducing lessons awarded for kills on someone of higher combat ratio or attack rating, and lessons for planting flags for occupying legions. Unlike experiences and chapters, these will be repeatable throughout the day and month, releasing a large number of experiences. There are also some 1000 tasks to be added soon for every affliction and defence, to encourage learning its ins and outs, and the 60 poisons are already in. Afterwards, there will be the 2500 experiences for every ability in existence, restricted by profession / availability, that will in reality release some 500 more to each mortal to receive in chapters.

Reminder about BUG

BUG is not a complaint mechanism. We are not investigating vagueries right now, like \"this is broken\". We need, most of all, message text, plus the context and situation which caused that situation.

BUG is for single message situations, for the most part. Email support [@] avalon-rpg.com with a log, preferably HTML coloured with timestamps, for anything of multiple messages. If a BUG or log requires investigation by a third party to figure out how it happened, the report will be tagged for consideration in the indefinite future. Be specific, clear, and simple. Failing that, it will be put into the \"later\" bin.

The UPDATES since now

Like last time, it is too much to simply post here. Check out the December 30th down to November 15th, this time. Read it carefully and many times if necessary, as it covers many different aspects of the realm.

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 24th of Skyelong, in the year 1442.