Teras Isle development history (saved posts)

Fawn Retires

Category: Towns
Topic: General Towns Discussion
Message #: 362
Author: INIQUITY
Date: 08/08/2017 09:20 PM EDT
Subject: What came first the chicken or the egg!

Got it. She was calling it Uman Isle. Uman Island is from the "Journey to the Magic Isle" Shadow World source book from 1989, it was supposed to be rich in volcanic glass. Laen. Which is mein / glaes now. The words "Dwarf" and "Dwarves" do not turn up in a search of that book, and its volcano is dead, so it ended up very loosely based.

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Category Socializing (7) 
Topic Thanks and Warm Fuzzies (16) 
Message Thank you all for the incredible years! (75) 
By GS3-FAWN@PLAY.NET 
On Dec 19, 2000 at 17:37 

The greatest asset of GemStone III lies in its constant evolution. When I began as an AGM back in 1993, the only town we had was Kelfour's Landing (now Wehnimer's), everyone wore AT-4 (heavy hide), every treasure box was called "a small chest", there were no active guilds, only one society, no Ranger's spell list, no Sorcerer's spell list, and no Closed Channeling (now major elemental) list. The highest level creatures were liches I believe, and the Broken Lands were months away from opening. Uman Isle (now called Teras) was the barest whisper of a thought in Kygar's fertile imagination, no one had dreamed of Ebon's Gate and of the dozen or so GMs on staff at the time, the only other females were Miriani and Reline (now Nova). There was no Krolvin village, no Lake Marliese, no special shrines to any of the gods, no players who had reached level 50. There were no Hosts, no Sages, no Mentors. 

We've come a long way together since then. From my first day as a GameMaster back in 1993 to my first day as Product Manager in February of 1994, all the way through today, I have been fortunate to be surrounded by an incredibly diverse, talented, devoted, brilliant, and creative staff. These people, from the newest Host to the most experienced Senior GM, are the ones responsible for bringing the magic alive for all of you on a continuing basis. They create the castles, creatures, forests, and beaches that make GemStone III so textured and rich. They help you with problems, police the troublemakers, run the events, and answer your questions as best they can. They are simply incredible. 

For me, GemStone III has always been a labor of love. My life has been enriched by countless friends I'd have never known were it not for GemStone III and Simutronics. Through all the good times and tough times of the past few years, my one constant has been GemStone III. What can we do to make it better? What are we doing right? Where should we expand? How can we reach people? How can we be more fair? How can we grow? What can we do to make it feel more intimate again? On and on and on. 

Sure, I've made some mistakes and have kicked myself pretty hard for some of them. Hindsight is always much clearer than foresight - even in Elanthia. ;) Unfortunately, neither GMs nor Producers are the all-knowing creatures we are sometimes thought to be. After all, we're really just mortals in disguise. But I hope that those who know me (or even those who think they know me) understand that everything we've done - the good and the bad - was all done for the right reason. To make GemStone III better. 

Now, it's time to move on. Elanthia is in good hands. Llearyn (Melissa) loves it as much as I ever have and will nurture it in her own way. She will bring new energy, new ideas and a fresh viewpoint to every situation. She is one of my very best friends, and thus it is somewhat easier for me to say goodbye than it might have been. I know she will take good care of all the GMs and all the players, because she treasures all of it and them as much as I do. I'll still be here for her if she has questions or wants advice, but over the next couple of weeks my official presence in GemStone III will end as I begin a new project with Simutronics. 

To all those I've worked with, cried with, laughed with, created for, played with, confounded, irritated and amused over these past years, I can offer only a few words that seem woefully inadequate to cover it all: 

You have changed my life immeasurably. I will always be grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Suz 

P.S. Lest you be lulled into thinking otherwise, I will still be expecting to see you all at SimuCon 2001. Don't think this changes anything in that regard! ;)

Banthis On Teras Isle Development

Category: Towns
Topic: General Towns Discussion
Message #: 367
Author: EREK
Date: 08/08/2017 09:58 PM EDT
Subject: What came first the chicken or the egg!

<<Got it. She was calling it Uman Isle. Uman Island is from the "Journey to the Magic Isle" Shadow World source book from 1989, it was supposed to be rich in volcanic glass. Laen. Which is mein / glaes now. The words "Dwarf" and "Dwarves" do not turn up in a search of that book, and its volcano is dead, so it ended up very loosely based.

Yep that's it exactly. Roger (Kygar) and Suz had been working on an island -- it wasn't actually called Uman at the beginning.. Suz had yet another name for it :) -- but the project had been somewhat abandoned for more pressing matters. When I stated talking to her about wanting to build Eidolon, she showed me the work she and Roger had done, and I felt like there was enough there that we could get a team together, fix it up, and open it as a higher level refuge. The idea of the Dwarven airship that had crashed on the island, and resulting town of Kharam Dzu was an added idea just to give it a little bit of added flavor. It was probably one of the largest efforts we'd done as a team. Immediately prior, we had worked on Claedesbrim (Darkstone) Castle, but it was a much smaller team (probably no more than three people). The Gemstone playerbase itself kept expanding way beyond what we ever thought it would, thus we continued to try and spread everyone out in order to relieve pressure and stress of so many people in one place. (Back then we'd have 2,000-2,900 simultaneous players regularly.)

Given the current player count, there's really no need to create such large constructs anymore. If they do get created again, I would hope that artificial means of "time == distance" travel are not similarly re-created. When I look back at all that; it was definitely for a reason, but I think times have changed so much that those reasons are no longer valid. (Granted, I am sure there are a number of players who do LIKE to feel far away and isolated from everyone else, but there's probably an equal number who don't.)