Post by ShockHelix on Feb 18, 2016 23:04:57 GMT -5
Nexus Weekly News
February 19th, 2016
General News
Let me start by saying greetings to everyone. Things have been pretty quiet, but we staff have been hard at work trying to get things in order to roll out new content for everyone. There's been a lot going on, in real life and on site, and unless you're constantly in the chatango you probably don't know much of what has been happening. As the Nexus grows in number and we get more and more attention, it seems high time we find a better way to communicate with everyone. Since we already have a board for news and updates, all we really need is to make use of it and give you guys something to talk about. So lets get to it.
The first and most obvious update we have for you, is that from here on out, we're going to try and get a weekly update going. Sometimes there might be a lot, and sometimes not so much, but if all goes well your new 'Nexus Weekly News' should be out on Fridays, every week. Starting off, we're going to try and keep things to this general format, though who knows what we might do in the future. Only time can tell.
Next up on the list, we've got a lot of plans under way, and not all of them are going to be unique to just a single category. We've had a lot of discussion, and we're going to have a few rule changes soon, though we haven't nailed down what exactly just yet. One thing I think we can all be in agreement on however, is that we're going to start considering reading category canon a rule, rather then simply a guide. Not to say canon can't change, it constantly does, but in an effort to make things more streamlined for everyone, we believe we'll encounter less conflict if we keep canon up to date and constantly important. You'll still be free to make your own stories, and there really isn't much actually changing in this for any non-moderators, aside from we'll want you to re-read the category canon each time you go to submit a character.
Lastly for the general news, is that the site has been up for awhile now and still isn't up to snuff graphically. While it looks okay, we're aware it isn't the most aesthetically pleasing at current, if functional. I won't make any promises to when exactly we'll be making changes to things, improving the sidebar, adding in more distinctive images for navigation, but there are plans. We hit a kink when proboards changed their system, one which I'm not familiar with coding or editing, so a lot more learning will be necessary before anything major in aesthetics can occur.
Fallout
As we're all aware, Fallout has the most going on right now, and I'm sure everyone is just itching to get into the commonwealth and make new stories. It's been a long time coming, but there's a lot being done here. We've been using a titan pad for all our info since Fallout 4 came out, and it currently has one thousand, five hundred, and fifty lines of information. And we've heavily discussed nearly every location in the Commonwealth, not to mention the Capital Wasteland and the Mojave Desert. There's a time jump from New Vegas to 4, so we need to make sure every area is going to reflect properly on that.
But, with a time jump, comes more problems then just updating site canon. As you may or may not have realized, every character up to this point has been made on a timeline set before the events of Fallout 4. This won't make much sense to anyone new coming in, or those checking on a character that was made before the time jump, so unfortunately once we have the guides all updated, we're going to be implementing and advancement system for characters. This is basically going to work as a resubmittal for any existing characters set before our time jump, with three options. The first will be to edit in some additional history, explaining what your characters been up to for the last few years. Secondly, would be advancing your character from when they were originally born to five years in the future. Those of you who chose to have your characters involved in canon events won't be able to do this, so you'll either be limited to option one, or option three. Option three is to leave the character as is, and only use it in threads that began before Fallout 4, either existing ones or new ones marked as being before the time jump.
Don't get to that right now, and there's also going to be a slight change to the Fallout Character Template. We're not solid on how far we're going to take it, but at the least what used to serve as a sort of 'tag skills' is going to merged in somewhere else. It's always seemed more of a game mechanic, and our system here encourages realistic writing so it simply doesn't fit.
As of writing this, we've been working hard on getting our first full guide rework out. What used to be called Terrors of the Waste, has been renamed to the VDSG Catalog - Creature Overviews. It's a lot of work, but we're working on updating and adding every new creature to the list here from what we've discussed on our workpad.
What you're seeing above is what the new creature details are going to look like. Broken into sections of animals, aquatics, humanoids, and insects, those using the guide should have a better way to briefly skim over the creatures. As always we don't want to put too large of a flood of information here, since further details can always be found on the fallout wikia. You also may notice some images have a 'no image available' additive, or use renders from older games. In some cases this is unavoidable, but once the Creation Kit for fallout 4 releases, it should be much easier for us to acquire creature renders and edit them in. As for those that aren't present in the game, we're always keeping an eye out for anything better then the concept art they might have came from. If you ever see a well detailed model that can have its background easily edited out, feel free to drop the image link in the suggestion box for the creature in question.
For those of you itching to get into the commonwealth, just be patient a while longer. We'll have it finished soon.
The Elder Scrolls
Though sometimes there won't be a lot to report, we'll make sure to include the updates for every section where we can. Where the Elder Scrolls is concerned, there isn't much we're working on here. We're mostly focused on Fallout right now, so any minor changes or updates we might be making to the Elder Scrolls will have to wait. It's the lowest on our priority list right now, as every other category has a lot more work that needs to be done.
Halo
Like Fallout, Halo needs some work as well, though not nearly as much. We're looking to update a few guides after Halo 5's release, though fortunately this canon has been set far enough in the future where we can edit things in without any major effects. Since there's nothing directly stopping you from participating in threads here, we're going to hold off on making those edits until we've got Fallout and Star Wars out of the way.
Star Wars
So how about that Force Awakens? It's been out for a while, but I won't put any spoilers here. Simply put however, this is our newest active category and it's been getting some activity. We're still working on improving upon it, and we've got a few plans in place for the future. One of these is getting some nice images for use in the character template - not that we'll be asking anyone to change what they've already done in this case.
What is most immediate, is that Zelus has been hard at work - for quite a while - on bringing you a Fleets of the Galaxy guide. Rather then trying to sift through the infinite pages on the Star Wars wikia, you can now browse this for a quick idea of what your character might use based on the factions they've aligned with, and the ships of the enemies they'll face as well. For those of you more familiar with the Star Wars universe, you're welcome to use the ships you wish when they fit, but hopefully this guide will make things smoother for the rest of you.
As for canon, at this time we're not going to change things to how they play out in Episode VII. While it's certainly exciting, until this trilogy ends there's no way to know if it'll leave everyone with the ability to delve into each of the galaxy's most popular factions. A big part of the universe is Sith vs. Jedi, so don't expect any canon changes to the proper canon changes until after the trilogy ends, if even then.
Well, that's all the information for now. If you have any questions or just want to discuss things among yourselves, feel free to post up your thoughts below. Again, we'll try and put news out every Friday if we can, though the amount of news that comes with it will vary.
- Immortal, signing off.