Sizael

omgtooreal: gif found at thefunniestpost.com

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:12:47 -0500

gif found at thefunniestpost.com

A New Look & a New Chapter?

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:46:00 -0400

Above: A work in progress screenshot of the conversion of one of our old looks, V1.8 Dark & Simple from Zetaboards to Xenforo format (by Captain).

Lately I’ve really been enjoying toying with skinning Xenforo (I say toying because I’m still making mistakes and taking hours to find them due to the new forum software). Before we knew we were moving to Xenforo, I had designed a new look for Sizael that would break away from the normal layout back when we were on Zetaboards. With a bit of tweaking, the layout could also be applied to Xenforo… once I learn all the new Xenforo coding syntax, that is.

Question is, how often should I be redesigning Sizael’s look? There was a time back on Zetaboards, back when we were insanely busy, when I would be designing new skins/themes just for the special events and I loved that - loved making skins/themes/looks that corresponded with the release of a special event, loved that they were inspired by the staff’s initial notes of what might happen in those events.

I guess I don’t want to stop doing that yet, and with Sizael’s new Questlight Challenges, it can continue by challenging the members to complete a challenge together and as a result, unlocking a new feature (in this case, a new look). Yet there is a new chapter coming.

With the way Chapter Four has worked out so far, all versions of Chapter Five were pulled apart and had their gems desposited into Chapter Four. It also means Chapter Five lost it’s theme and name. For example, for this game chapter, Chapter Four, we named it Arising. This was because of the theme - the Battle for Caften City saw the druids ‘arise’ from the shadows. More hints about Boxien have revealed that he ‘arose’ from Deabition as part of the Deabition Army. Lemora’s dangers have ‘arisen’, with the Lemorien Sickness killing its people. Chapter Five was going to be called, Revelations… but those very revelations that gave it its name are now in C4.

So what is Sizael’s Heads Up Display Unit (HUD) and Sizael’s ship Captain (me) to do?

Our first priority right now is keeping things moving - September is known for bringing slumps (ask any play-by-post roleplay’s admin) so we’re just combating that right now. Add to that the work taking place behind the scenes for the Love or Blood Special Event, and spoiler thread in Harmania bringing hooks in from both last year and two years ago, and we’re busy bunnies.

Chapter Four is proving to be a slightly predictable chapter, at the very least, it is for me as the storyline analyser. Right now characters HUD and I were hoping would step into the limelight haven’t done so, so this chapter so far is only being influenced by three members which is a shame. I understand that personal plots are always more interesting than board-wide affecting ones are, yet it seems that for the past few months, very few are trying to purposefully affect the storyline. Though we do out best to find things within personal plots to affect it, sometimes we just hit dirt instead of gold.

We’ve had this once before, for a small period of time, and we should be able to manage again. A lot of problems have arisen due to the Expedition burning out, as many chapter hooks for both this chapter and chapter six/five/future were incorporated into it. That’s our fault though - expeditions in general need to be designed differently from a management and ‘platform’ point of view.

Bit of a ramble this one, eh?

art-of-swords: French Small-Sword Dated: circa 1780 Size:...

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 04:45:26 -0400

art-of-swords:

French Small-Sword

Dated: circa 1780

Size: length: 98cm / 39in

The steel hilt chiselled on a gold ground and decorated overall with military figures, mounted and dismounted, of the mid-eighteenth century, bordered and enclosed by tracery in the chinoiserie taste. The blade of hollow triangular section, blued and gilded for most of its length. The depictions of warriors on sword hilts is an ancient practice but reached its apogee in France during the reigns of Kings Louis XV and XVI.

Source & Copyright: Peter Finer

Xenforo Update (#9)

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 04:44:51 -0400

I missed out a few updates on here. Apologies for that! You can see them all at http://tempsiz.sizaelrpg.com (our temporary site and where to hang out if we ever have any server downtime).

This has been emailed:

Morning all!

If you had problems accessing Tempsiz, it should now have been resolved – this was due to changing the nameservers on the domain.

Progress

I’m happy saying that, if I can check all the permissions of each forum throughout today (keep in mind I am at work too), the new Xenforo version of Sizael may be able to open its doors to you by the UK late evening/night and you’ll receive your temporary passwords over on the Zetaboards site via PM. I have a master list of these passwords in case anything goes wrong and they’re made of all numbers; once you’re on Xenforo, I highly recommend changing them!

Character Accounts

Everyone’s accounts passed over onto the new software quite happily… Barring my original ‘Captain’ (aka my staffing/Mairi account); it did get fixed, but it does mean there are now two staffing accounts for me – Captain Drae and Captain. If you see me online as Captain Drae, I’m probably in the Admin CP of Xenforo and won’t be aware you’re talking to me in the shoutbox or via private message etc until I come out of it. I’ll be turning off the ability to send messages to Captain Drae, so remember if you need to message me privately to send it to my Captain account.

Once On Xenforo

There’s still a lot of things I as the admin will be doing – so though some of you may have threads with me, please look to other members to start up your roleplaying habits again. I’ll be getting round to them as quickly as I can but I cannot promise a reply from me every day like some of you are used to. The exception here will be for Rho and Pchan, as I suspect we’ll be threading Rho’s first thread together as the merchant pirate Lord Simmons.

Rules Update

Some of the rules will be tweaked in wording slightly, and Rule Two is a new one that affects new and potential members.

2. During your first month’s experience you may only create two approved/played characters and one attached NPC for each character. After your first month, you may create additional approved/played characters as long as all character accounts you use have 30IC posts or more. You may drop a character at any time, but must wait one week from dropping to submit a new character. If you feel you cannot meet your minimum posting count/requirement (MPC), don’t fret – the ability to change it from one, two or three+ paragraphs is moving over with us!

A Note About Rule 5: Avatars sizes are currently set at 150x133, but I’ll be looking into changing this to 160x250.

IC Posting Requirements

Currently, the posting requirement on Sizael has been one post per month per member (otherwise you become known as inactive). We have been considering changing this to a four posts per month requirement, but we want your views first. All of you who are already playing approved characters already meet this. Protection Mode will be taken into account though so if you don’t post four times IC a month but managed two and were in Protection for two weeks, then you still pass the requirement. We’ve been considering asking for this due to the storyline’s progression being the cause of character actions and inactions.

Awards

The images for the awards have yet to be uploaded (on account of some tweaking needing to be done for them so the award page will show it how it is meant to), but in the meantime – there are 169 of our awards available to view and earn (once Xenforo-Sizael opens)! To view them and the award points you get for them, you’ll need to click on, “Help” then, “Awards”. Once the guidebook is on Xenforo, a link will also be in its sidebar just as it was on the Zetaboards version of Sizael. To claim awards, head into the Support Centre.

Xenforo Upgrade Update #5

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 11:37:45 -0400

Well… You can’t say I’m not learning something new today!

Finally figured out what caused the hiccup that was stopping me installing Xenforo onto our Bigwetfish server! Now I’ll need to find out a few more bit and pieces to complete the installation, and then we should be ready to grab posts and accounts! If you have Character Development threads, blog entries or anything else you want to copy just in case we temporarily lose them, I advise you do so ASAP!

Xenforo Upgrade Update #4

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 08:22:48 -0400

Afternoon, guys!

I spent quite a bit of time last night trying to get the Xenforo software itself to install onto the hosting server (a bit like installing a game onto your computer) after copying the software’s files onto it. I’ve been running into a few difficulties for that so there’s still no confirmed date for when the ZB site will close for the grab.

I’m working on getting this sorted as quickly as possible, but I apologise for the delay caused by this current hiccup.

Internal Links

There’s a high chance all links to other posts within posts will be broken. HUD and I will fix the C4 and C3 Chronological Orders once we’ve moved, but we likely won’t fix other internal links unless the post they are in are considered vital - this means links in signatures, links to original profiles in developed profiles, links to threads before other IC threads will probably be broken when we move. It could also mean that even when we have uploaded our custom Anubian smilies by Emma onto the XF site, the old posts might not show them :’(

As always, I’ll try and keep you as updated as possible, without over updating you with too much information. Any questions, please ask!

Xenforo Update #3

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:56:00 -0400

This should have been emailed to you. If not, please let staff know as it means you are not on our distribution list!

Right, time for Xenforo Upgrade Update #3! (#2 was not emailed as it was a quick update and is dealt with in more information here.)

Host

So, we decided upon a different host, last minute. This was decided upon considering the space provided – we’re now going with Bigwetfish, and I am happy to report that their customer support is even faster than GoDaddy’s!

Avatars & Signatures

As we are converting the database (the database is our accounts and post content) from Zetaboards to PHPBB and then to Xenforo format, there’s a high chance that avatars and signatures will not come with us. Though I will save every active character’s avatar as a just-in-case, I will not be saving your signatures. If you want to save them, please do so as soon as you can.

Character Development Threads

This is a shout out especially for Eugene, but for everyone who uses either the Development area of their blogs to develop their characters. Your original profiles have been backed up on an external hard drive just in case something awful happens. Posts should be fine, but as (to my knowledge) nobody has ever done a ZB > PHPBB > XF conversion before, there is a chance some posts may be lost (but we will be able to recover them) - hence why your original profiles were backed up. We have spotted others having an issue of missing posts after conversion, but there are ways to recover them, so we advise not worrying over this.

However, with your development threads, they are your responsibility. You can take the chance that nothing will happen to them, but if something does happen and we can’t recover it straight away, you may be kicking yourselves later. So if you have done a lot of work on your character beyond their original profile, or have a tracker etc, you may want to back them up. I advise using notepad for back-ups and either saving it as a txt file.

Passwords

We’ve heard back from Ashkir this morning regarding the password follow-up questions we asked. Each member will be messaged a new password (due to the format changing of our database) which will allow them to access their Xenforo accounts. As a back-up, Ashkir is also providing me with a master list of passwords, so if you do have difficulties accessing your account on Xenforo, simply email us at enquiries@sizaelrpg.com and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

Questions?

As ever, if you have any questions, please do ask them in the Support Centre!

Xenforo Upgrade Update #2

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:28:50 -0400

We’re now considering moving hosts (what, already? Tell us about it! XD). Upon re-evaluating Godaddy’s service and Sizael’s needs (and the size of the software alone), we are concerned that they may not provide us with enough space; when you consider that the new features and that we still plan to be online and running five or even more than five years down the line (plus using it to host Sizael’s theme/skin images, advertising images and more), 1GB storage is probably not going to be enough for us, or might only do us for a few months…

We have also spoken with Ashkir. We asked him a few last minute questions that crossed our minds, such as passwords, avatars and signatures. When we convert to XF, because we are changing the format of the database twice, we will be losing avatars and signatures. We’ll also be losing our passwords and will be given new ones to reset them. I’ve asked a few follow-ups regarding those passwords, but if you want to bring your avatars and signatures with you, I suggest you save them! At the very least I will be saving avatars of active character accounts!

Also, Ashkir will be using an admin account on Sizael’ ZB site to release his Bots of Greatness (to grab our things). So if you see an admin called Aki, please do not disturb them. He’s doing us a huge-diddily-mungous favour and he’s a pretty busy fella, so best to leave him to do his bits and pieces. If you need staff - just ask myself or HUD :)

Xenforo Update #1!

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 05:52:16 -0400

Good morning everyone!

We’re at the stage now where I’ll be uploading/unpacking the Xenforo software onto our hosting as soon as time permits. This will hopefully be done later today (I was going to try and do it yesterday but I ran out of time and was tired from work). Keep an eye on http://xf.sizaelrpg.com (and all of Sizael’s social media accounts) to see if I have moved it online!

Once the forum itself is up, we’ll be waiting for our friend Askir to have some time free to grab all our posts and accounts with his clever bots. As soon as a date has been confirmed for that, you’ll be notified via email, facebook, twitter, tumblr and the site itself. This is because during that time, Sizael will have to temporarily go into Maintenance Mode so that new posts are not lost. Whilst that is happening and we sort out the Xenforo forum to the point where we can all post on it, you’re welcome (and encouraged) to join us at our temporary forum: http://tempsiz.sizaelrpg.com. In fact, we recommend saving that link too, as if we ever have downtime for required updates to the Xenforo software or server, you’ll be invited to go there to keep in the loop with our community!

You’ll likely notice the Xenforo site sitting around decidedly blank in the meantime – after creating a blank database we have to wait for the posts and accounts to be moved onto the Xenforo software before we can start tweaking. Areas and such should be moved over with us, which is why we did the rearranging a bit early. If we tweak before that, the consequences could be bad. Some things we can touch though, like adding the awards (called trophies if we haven’t renamed it when you have a peek, found under the help tab) and the general set-up tweaks like renaming it from, “Xenforo” to, “Sizael”.

Once the posts and accounts are on the new Xenforo site, we’ll be champing at the bit to get you settled in, but again, there will likely be a few things we need to sort out first – like fixing every link across our content. We’ll keep you updated with all this too, and anything we can install/add/do with the forum ‘live’ will be done after opening up the Xenforo site (such things as adding the affiliates and shoutbox in for example).

Once the Xenforo site is ready to have us all posting and hanging around it, the domain of http://sizaelrpg.com will be applied to it. The Zetaboards site will not be deleted, but will be given the sub-domaing of http://zb.sizaelrpg.com, and will have redirects to the Xenforo site.

Remember! You do not need to register on the new forum as your account(s) will be moved over!

beforethemastrp: Yes, BEFORE THE MAST wants YOU! PLOT|| CREW...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 03:43:27 -0400

beforethemastrp:

Yes, BEFORE THE MAST wants YOU!

PLOT|| CREW LIST|| FACE CLAIM|| NEWBIE GUIDE || WANTED ADS

We are two years old and going strong! And we are writing a swashbuckling adventure story which is waiting for your contribution too. So, join us and let’s write it together, because we are here to stay!

It’s 1719 in the West Indies. War time, and pirates are also on the prowl. Sea fights, duels, plenty of swashbuckling adventures, intrigues of all kinds, mutiny, romance, betrayal - Before the Mast brings to live the Age of Sail like none before. Be ye a pirate, a naval officer, a slave or a lady, you will find a place aboard one of our four ships or live on a paradise island.

There is no Sparrow here, mate. Enjoy our gritty, realistic historical setting if you like learning about those times while getting immersed in weaving our original story.

Come live with us BEFORE THE MAST!

Sharpen your blades, load your guns, drain that last sip of rhum and join our adventures!

fuckyeaheverythingpirates: Pirate Haven

Seeking Captain Ida Lacey!

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 03:37:05 -0400

What does Captain Ida Lacey come with?

This character comes with a complete integrated history in Sizael’s storyline.
She has the Harpy Barrel, a ruined ship in the Pirate Pokey Ruins (why not repair it?)
She played a small part in the truce between the Assassins and Pirates, by forcing Jaq Snatch to go on behalf of the pirates.
She could be used to lead the pirates!
She could be used to strengthen the Resistance against Havazeti!
Questions? PM Captain on Sizael or ask in our guest-friendly Support Centre!

Check her out here!

Must I be able to write REALLY well?

We welcome gamers and writers of all ability and experience!

Important note: Due to this character’s in-built influence on the storyline, she may be re-adopted out if her adopted player goes inactive.

Knight Commander Javen's in Trouble!

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 06:18:42 -0400

As if we didn’t post enough warnings on Twitter… XD

The hints about watching out for greyhounds and to protect the Sizaeling Knights’ overall commander, Knight Commander Javen have united! Not only do you find out where and why Javen is in danger, but also a little something about Alfendyr and Havazeti that you never knew before…

Read: The Greyhound Spoiler Thread!

Things are changing on Sizael, the chapter’s snowballing.

Question is, will you survive this chapter?

Artwork by CathrineCruz.

The Crash of the Hirreen Siren

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 09:02:00 -0400

What do you do when a Hirreen Siren comes to your city? The people of Rajva City will have to figure this out soon, as this is the next Special Event on Sizael! Our own remake of the well known siren, Sizael’s hirreen sirens are based on both the more traditional siren (those that looks half-bird) as well as a more familiar beautiful lady of the waters.

But when her kiss infects the water, water-soaked items, seafood and the blood of men (and ladies inclined to date their own sex), just how long can the city survive in its trap, as each hour leads more and more to their death, just so the siren may live?

World of Seno V2 Theme Showcase: TONIGHT!

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:43:35 -0400

Afternoon everyone!

Later today, because staff are getting perhaps just a little too excited with how close the game update is, we’re doing a theme showcase!

That’s right! All other themes will go offline temporarily for the next twenty-four hours to show off one of our new themes coming with the update, the World of Seno V2 theme!

Chapter Four's Running Super Fast!

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:03:32 -0400

There was always something about Chapter Four that caught SRSEPT’s attention. Whether it was that it was the next chapter after our longest running chapter, or simply the theme of “arising” from which we took it’s title, Chapter Four is living up to expectations.

It’s moving incredibly fast. The Resistance and Independence of Rajva are combined to make one killer combination that will progress the story forwards, and may see the downfall of Havazeti. Chapter Five: Revelations is charging at us at full speed with the breakneck speed of the current chapter, and if Chapter Four goes as fast as it keeps doing, then we’ll be running to catch up, with a brand new version of Chapter Five!

Yet, with every action there is a consequence. We’re in for some rocky times, Sizaelings. Are you ready?

The Plot for Independence Begins!

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:56:00 -0400

Playing the Knight Warden over at sizaelrpg.com, I’ve posted up the roleplay thread for the plot in which the city of Rajva will be aiming to go independent of Havazeti’s rule to then become a springboard for opposing Havazeti and deposing of her. I’ll admit it isn’t my best opener, but it will certainly get us started.

Of course, where is a political plot without forewarning? Havazeti and Boxien are already aware of what the Resistance would do with Rajva (those rangers are very handy for spies), and they’re retaliating already. We’ve already seen Boxien in Harmania trying to take the place of the village leader, apparently on the orders of Havazeti. He’s threatening pretty much everyone too, but then Boxien’s always been a nasty piece of work!

So, it’s looking to be pretty interesting, and goodness knows what will happen next - trying to get the city’s influentials and lords to aid them in the goal may not go down well, or may cause further problems! It definitely feels that Havazeti’s reign is coming to a close due to the characters, but if that’s the case, who will become her replacement with Nathaniel Galen still out of the kingdom?

Art by Nailmeister

themattstone: if you don’t like this song, you’re wrong. I...

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:38:48 -0400

themattstone:

if you don’t like this song, you’re wrong.

I couldn’t agree more XD

dbo1377: A noble knight. :) City behind him is being...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 19:57:46 -0400

dbo1377:

A noble knight. :)

City behind him is being ransacked/attacked. Hope that isn’t Rajva City’s future at Sizael!

The Pirate Revival - Things Progress...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

Been a bit quiet here on our Tumblr, but here’s some backstage news!

Ok, so as many of our members know, and perhaps some more of our watchers and readers, we’ve been working to ease the pirates back into the storyline. During the game’s Chapter One and Chapter Two, pirates played a big part in the storyline, in part because we only had four class types (unlike nowadays). Now, with many more classes to choose from, pirates grew out of popularity.

Personally, I blame the assassins ;)

Nah, gotta love the assassins, one of the other original classes. Anyway, so staff cast their minds onto our pirate shortage and started wondering exactly what we could do about it. We came up with a lot. We’ve already got a handful of awards that members can earn by roleplaying with a pirate (drink with a drunken pirate for example), but what we needed to do was push them to the fore, force them to rejoin us in the storyline.

So, first, we looked to our new Quest System. It’s currently undergoing some changes to make that of more use, and will feature our new questlight idea (more about that when the V2 Update goes live), but we also thought about poor Captain Ida Lacey. An NPC since the beginning, she’d only ever really been used by a few of us, and some months back was turned into an adoptable character. She helped to create the Assassin Pirate Treaty by forcing one of the pirates to go to sign it, and was rumoured to be the decendant of a famous Sizaeling pirate who would one day reunite the pirates just as her ancestor did… Or so it goes.

After putting an image up advertising her on site, we saw a member quickly nab her up, which we’re absolutely loving!

But, sharp-eyed members might have picked up on the death of another NPC pirate, Captain Hardy. First made by a player who has long since left us, we were left with a whole NPC crew and ship with nothing to do. Though they’d been tied to the Resistance, attempts to use them kept failing, so we retired the group instead. Now though, Captain Hardy’s reappeared, dead, with a note saying that his murderer is an assassin. Word’s already getting round Caften City too!

Directly affecting the storyline, and threatening the Assassin Pirate Treaty, it looks like the pirates are slowly making a comeback, but we’ve more up our sleeves, so keep an eye out because pirates are coming back!

art-of-swords: Arma Bohemia Ear Dagger Original: Italian, late...

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:54:04 -0400

art-of-swords:

Arma Bohemia Ear Dagger

Original: Italian, late 15th century/early 16th century

This ear dagger presented here is based on a piece located in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain. Its grip scales are made of bone and are incised with darkened geometric patterns of lines. The bone scales are sandwiched with brass liner sheets that extend to into a foundation for the bone plaques that form the ears.

Two large rounded pyramidal brass buttons rivet the ears to the tang and smaller brass rivets secure the rest of the grip. The broad, double-edged blade is typical for the type. A thickened ricasso area transitions into an asymmetrical design with one sharpened edge being longer than the other.

The antique that inspires this piece has a gilded or damascened ricasso not replicated here. The scabbard is wood-cored and covered with black leather. Its general form with detailed metal fittings is based on a specific museum example.

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