Important Announcement

[DM_Aule]

There's been some important changes on the "organisational" side of our server.

DM Kev, creator of the UTT project and long-time head DM, has been in charge of MERPUK for over two years. The server has been a great success, and the community we have built up is marvellous. We have a talented and highly dedicated dev team. All this would not have been possible without his dedication and hard work.

Recently he has been getting involved in other parts of Wireplay gaming as well -- among others, he is in charge of Wireplay's newsletter WCN and is admin and map maker for the CS:S community --, and thus, the time he has available for MERP is becoming more and more limited.

In view of all this, DM Kev has decided to concentrate on his other duties and take a back seat in UTT development for a while. He will still be involved, but only for very important issues -- bans logging, hardware or server issues and the like --, but the bulk of the work will be done by others. This will have several implications for the community, here the main ones:
Development of the module WILL CONTINUE -- Kev is leaving the rest of the dev team in charge.
DM Aule will act as Deputy Community Liaison for the MERP community. This means that any and all queries related to the server, module or community should be directed at him, rather than DM Kev.
The dev team will work together to keep up the high-quality content that we are used to seeing under Kev's direction.
However, as running a project of this size is new to us, there may/will be hitches -- please bear with us, we're doing our best. :)
We have formulated plans for the immediate future, and although we'd like to keep some of them as surprises, here are a few of them -- think of them as teasers.
The first is a technical point -- there will be more regular/scheduled resets, at least one daily, in an attempt to reduce server lag.
Secondly, expect to see an increased DM presence. We are completely dedicated to this project, and intend to make ourselves felt again.
Thirdly, there are plans to have regular (weekly?) major DM-led events, on a continuing storyline. Watch this space for further announcements.
New content lined up -- there is a wealth of material almost ready for inclusion in the module, we're adding the finishing touches. Some of it has been presented in teaser screenshots already, maybe we'll release a few more of these. :)
MerpPRC -- the project is not dead. The current re-adjustments may delay it a little bit, still... expect a wealth of Middle-Earth specific classes to be added over summer.
That's all for now. Thank you for your patience, it's a pleasure having you all as members of the community.

- DM Kev and the UTT2 Dev Team (DMs Araw, Aule, Lorien, Olorin)

[DM_Kev]

I hope you will all support Aule and the dev team as they continue the success story that has been the Untold Tales series. I decided to appoint Aule into his new position and as my 'proxy' as his contributions to the community have been most valuable and his sense of what Untold Tales is about and how it should be run are very eye to eye with mine. The other factor was that he has bags of time (so he says!), so he can really make a good job of what i've given to him.

DM Aule pretty much has my permission to do whatever he likes to my work, although major changes or additions to the mod will require my consultation (eg new haks, prc classes, regions, etc). I will handle the logging of bans placed by the DMs and make sure that the server is running and functioning properly.

My decision to call it a day with modding was due to the reasons Aule stated, though another factor was how I felt about the game. I have run this for over two years and spent a few thousand hours modding, not including small modding projects I did before I started all this. Effectively, I have modded this game to death and I no longer find it interesting or even rewarding. Other tools have my attention and there is interest from others for me to take up using and running projects with them instead; the HL2 hammer editor for instance which can be used to make Counter Strike Source Levels. So thats what I currently spend my modding time on.

I may return to modding, but it will unlikely be for NWN. However, it is very likely I will be modding NWN2 and creating something new altogether. The LOTR films created a middle earth craze for some time, but that is dying off now and I would rather flex my creative muscles making something new altogether. It may be D&D, it may be a spawn of my imagination. Whatever it is, it will take place here, in this community with the Dev team reassembled to how it usually is.

I am aware of the content being prepared for you all, and I can assure you all, you're in for a treat!

I will still frequent the forums and be in irc, still answering questions as needed where I can. I can also be found in #wireplay on irc and many of the other forums on this board. My e-mail has also changed. It is kbalmer@ntlworld.com

Do not use it to send mod ideas, etc to me unless it is something desperately urgent. Send it to DM Aule instead. If I get mails that i don't need, I will forward it to Aule, or if I think its a silly idea, i'll bin it instead to save him the bother!

Enjoy the game.

[DM_Kev]

I've got my 'timetable' arranged nicely now. Disregard all the above, the original management structure is coming back. :O