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Hey Everyone,

I wanted to write this note to you all to let you know that as of today, I'm stepping down from being Co-Producer of Lusternia. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to pull through on my promises, first with the economy and now with conflict. Truth be told, I offered to step down last year after not being able to move forward on the Economy but was asked to stay as I was also actively looking for a less demanding job outside of Lusternia. I did get a new job in April which is a whole lot better for me, but other things have cropped up and unfortunately, it's really preventing me from being able to accomplish my goals here, so about two months ago, I let Uilani and IRE know that I wanted to step down.

The reason we've waited this long to announce it is that we wanted to have a plan in place prior. We're now happy to announce that we have Ealix stepping up as an Assistant Producer. I will be sticking around as an AP as well for the next month to get him up to speed.

Ealix has been around for quite some time as a volunteer and has done a tremendous job coding for Lusternia. He's been an asset to the team here, coding various projects for them so they can continue running the great events that they put on. He's coded reports, fixed bugs, and been generally helpful altogether. He also has experience with PvP and combat and can be a guiding force there as well. Both Uilani and I believe he has what it takes to step up here. I'll let him address you more and let you all know what his goals and plans are.

As we make this transition, I wish to reflect on my time as a Producer and share things that I hope you will take to heart and that will make you more understanding toward Ealix and Uilani as they move forward.

Being a Producer of Lusternia isn't easy, there are so many different aspects that need to be done, from issues, emails, customizations, bugfixes, reports, customer service, talking on Discord, training volunteers, reviewing others' work, planning events, goals, and changes. All of it is far more time-consuming than you can imagine. Being a Producer here is not anyone's full-time job, it doesn't pay the bills. It isn't unheard of for a single issue to take up 2-3 days worth of time to gather evidence, discuss and come to a decision on. It isn't unheard of for something to come up that needs addressing that takes up quite a bit of time and requires other things to be pushed back. We're extremely lucky that we have such great volunteers that are willing to take on some of the load, but whatever they don't take on, that's left to the Producers.

I say all this, not so much to say you need to give Producers a pass on everything but to say that they're always working diligently towards making Lusternia better. That doesn't mean you need to agree with decisions that they make, but it does mean that you are wrong when you call bias. Try to express your disagreement from the standpoint that we're all working together to make Lusternia better. We all have different ideas and different opinions, but we all want the same goal.

Part of that goal is for players to be able to make an impact on the world. The downside of letting players make their impact on their world is that sometimes, things don't go their way. Very often, when that happens, players expect the admin to fix the problems they caused themselves. This may be true to an extent, certainly not all systems in Lusternia are without flaw, but part of allowing a world where players run their organisations and guilds, can interact and take part in politics, PvP, etc., means that sometimes, players need to answer for their actions. Such as when they offend someone. I have seen players across both alliances treat people across the divide rudely and then complain when they get attacked or raided. Or escalate perceived slights way farther than they need to go.

We can all be better, we all love to interact in various ways in this wonderful world of Lusternia. Be good to Ealix and Uilani, as well as the rest of the volunteer admin team, they give so much and are the main reason that players time and time again say that events and divine interaction are their favorite parts of Lusternia.

Be good to each other, be understanding and more forgiving, and things will be better all around.

Most importantly, do what is fun for you and if things are becoming not fun - take a break and come back when you can once again enjoy things.

Orael

Hello, everyone!

As Orael addressed in his news post, I will be stepping up as an Assistant Producer to Lusternia. As a start, I'd first like to extend my personal thanks to Orael for all the work he has put in over the years, both for you, the players, and myself and the rest of the administration on the whole. He has been excellent to work with as part of the administration, and has always helped us in as much capacity as he can.

Going over some of the things Orael has pointed out, I have been a volunteer for some time, and a lot of that time I have spent in the background coding for Lusternia. Presently and in the more recent months, I have also been active as Zvoltz, the Architect and will continue to maintain this role moving forward.

As a player, I spent a lot of my time involved in conflict and PvP. I have played almost every class that Lusternia has to offer, and it's safe to say I have a vested interest in how combat and conflict progresses into the future. While I understand that conflict and combat is not the be all and end all of Lusternia, I do believe that it does play a large role in the game world.

Speaking of conflict and interest, I'd like to go over some of the things that I will be working towards moving into the role. First and foremost, I am going to continue on with the monitoring and adjustment of conflict events and combat as a whole. I'll be one of the first people to admit that Lusternia combat and conflict events are far from perfect. I have seen a lot of people over the past few months/years looking at combat and conflict and going 'It is what it is', but it doesn't have to be. So let's make it better together.

While the Conflict Overhaul may be my focal point as I step into the role, this does not mean that we as an administration are cancelling other pending projects. Work will continue on the Economy Overhaul, but it may be something we circle back to after we address conflict a little bit to try and resolve some of the problems we are currently facing in this aspect of the game.

In addition to the above, I want to move forward and look at interesting and new things to create for you, the players. It could be something from a new mini game, or arena event, to a whole new big creation like the Endzone, I want to create more new and fun things for you all to do that you will enjoy.

In a broader sense, I intend to be as open, transparent and honest as I can with all of you. Even if it's as simple as telling you how X skill works, or what Y ability checks for, as long as it's something that I can tell you, I will. This same open and honest philosophy will extend to everything else. If we are working on something in the background that we have promised and we aren't going to make a deadline, you'll know. If we say 'we can try that' and we look at it and it isn't viable, you'll know.

I look forward to working more with yourselves and the rest of the administration in this new capacity, and I hope that together, we can all come together to give you a better experience and time within Lusternia.

~ Ealix.