Patch Notes

[Omni]

In order to better define what counts as a Buff or Debuff, I've added a couple words to the proficiency descriptions.

Previously:

Buff Proficiency – 400 OM (Example move)
Allows you to create moves which provide beneficial effects to allies at cost to yourself (usually time and/or energy). While this might seem pointless, pooling one's powers can be a very effective strategy, especially against overwhelming foes. Boosting or adjusting one's own stats requires a Transformation. Significant stat boosts require the use of a Super Move in conjunction with this proficiency.

Debuff Proficiency – 1000 OM (Example move)
Allows you to create moves which have a lingering detrimental effect against opponents. For example, an ice beam which slows or freezes enemies, or a flashbang grenade that blinds and deafens your opponents.

Now:

Buff Proficiency – 400 OM (Example move)
Allows you to create moves which provide lingering or channelled beneficial effects to allies at cost to yourself (usually time and/or energy). While this might seem pointless, pooling one's powers can be a very effective strategy, especially against overwhelming foes. Boosting or adjusting one's own stats requires a Transformation. Significant stat boosts require the use of a Super Move in conjunction with this proficiency.

Debuff Proficiency – 1000 OM (Example move)
Allows you to create moves which have a lingering or channelled detrimental effect against opponents. For example, an ice beam which slows or freezes enemies, or a flashbang grenade that blinds and deafens your opponents.

[Omni]

Slight change: Times now never show as approximate "10 hours ago" "4 hours ago" etc. We need to see the exact times and minutes for posts, I remember this got annoying and confusing during DA, and it's definitely needed for PvP. Had to install a plugin because for some reason, this isn't default MyBB functionality yet.

[Omni]

Rules clarification on Death and Banishment:

Resurrection Sickness
Immediately upon resurrecting, Primes are weaker and often have blurry memories. This is more often than not of around the time of their death and less-so the further back they go. This memory loss can be used for role-playing fodder if you wish or may be ignored entirely. These memories tend to come back within the course of a week but can be extended or intensified for role-playing fodder as you wish.

The physical effects of 'resurrection sickness' make a prime weaker immediately upon resurrecting (half effective stats and SP, 10 points of accumulated damage) and gradually wear off over the course of an OOC week. This begins to wear off immediately after resurrection - it does not require the breaking of the Death Shroud.

If it's been longer than two weeks since you died - for example if you took longer than a week to respawn - you may skip Resurrection Sickness.

[Omni]

Teleportation line added for rules clarity:

"Advanced applications of teleportation, such as teleporting others or objects, creating portals et cetera, require the creation of moves. "

[Omni]

Update to moves rules, regarding Super Attack radius:

"Rules note for area attacks and effects: consider an diameter of around thirty metres to be the maximum for a Tier 1 Super Attack, increasing to 60 and 90 respectively at Tiers 2 and 3 (this works out to a square metre range of around 24, 47 and 70). It's possible for weaker non-damaging utility effects to have a larger radius."

[Omni]

The Nexus sticky has been updated with some wonderful visual diagrams to show the distances between the gates and the layout, courtesy of Belle.

[Alex]

Wyatt (Gilgamesh/Atelos) has returned to the Choir as a Cherub.

Unfortunately, Mark has stepped down from staff to focus on an increasingly busy and stressful IRL schedule. Please send Mark your digital hugs and bro-fist-bumps and bid him a good return to us someday.

[Alex]

Whirda has been added to the staffing team as a Sprite.

[Alex]

I went through and updated the OOC Rules of Conduct, located -> http://omniverse-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=29

-->Extensive language to accommodate for the Discord platform being a big part of how we communicate
-->Clarified language on punishment for violators
-->Expanded sections on the chatbox and 'flooding' it. Don't consume the chatbox with
-->Added some language to remind about Staff obligations to the community and vis versa

Unrelated, but I did delete a thread from the OVD about 'OOC rules feedback' that was started two days ago. Feedback can be provided to staff or me, though. My office is always open.

[Alex]

Luci has stepped up to join the staff team as a Sprite

[Alex]

More staff shuffling, so I did take out some earlier posts here. Likely more news in this regard in the future, but for now, just some moving around.

Jade is back on staff. Her focus is going to be Social Outreach, which will include social media and advertising. This is similar to work she does IRL, so it's within her area of expertise and I trust her to excel.

Wyatt is now an Angel (he held an Angel position for about a year before his hiatus) to help fill the void that both Mark and Greg left in our team (and in our hearts).

Trixie is now an Angel as well, so he can flex his IT skills and assist the team in future projects in that regard. This puts us at 7 senior staff members, which is likely where I'll keep it at.

Blink and Kelly are cherubs and Dane is an Angel. Remember, as Greg stated earlier, Dane's good with Moves, and he's there to help you. He's an Angel, so don't make him or the others flex on you.

I expect to have some openings (additional positions), so please keep an eye out for when those are posted.

[Alex]

We are expanding the system for awarding Writing Bonuses to include an additional 'tier' between GREAT and EXEMPLARY. There is no change to the overall requirements or award %s, we're just sandwiching in a new tier in the middle.

NO BONUS: 0% OM
“Does not qualify for a bonus” is a nice way of saying that a thread or storyline wasn't great. If the writing style was consistently bad, poor or awkward, with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, we can't give a bonus.

GREAT: +50% OM
Spelling, grammar and writing style are all excellent (no tense-switching, only occasional spelling/grammar errors, shows they had a good proofread of every post). Story is coherent. No large mistakes to criticise. This bonus may only be given to a storyline in which the person receiving it has written at least 4000 words.

EXCELLENT: +75% OM
This story qualifies as GREAT, but it is so well written (stylistically, in terms of being readable, an interesting or important plot) that it deserves a bit more recognition than a GREAT bonus, even if it does not qualify for an EXEMPLARY bonus. This bonus may only be given to a storyline in which the person receiving it has written at least 6000 words.

EXEMPLARY: +100% OM
You considered the story to be extremely good, both from a stylistic standpoint and from a 'plot' standpoint. For lack of a better word, 'plot' includes characterization, humor, subverting expectations et cetera. This is a very broad category and almost anything can be considered to be exceptional within this. This bonus may only be given to a storyline in which the person receiving it has written at least 8000 words

[Alex]

Staff has be overhauled to a "Department"-based model that puts various staff tasks into Teams. The Sprite-Cherub-Angel tiers remain in this set up, it's just the tasks that have been shifted around. Questions can be asked in the Help Desk. It may take me some time to update all the proper stickies and so forth.

Edit -- As part of this shift, Whirda has been promoted to Cherub.

DEPARTMENTS

In order to effectively maintain the Omniverse and ensure that every member of staff has an opportunity to let their particular skillset shine, the duties here will be split apart into various ‘Departments’ (or Teams). Each Department will specialize in a particular aspect of the website, whether that’s handling Move Approvals, grading threads, or performing OM updates. Departments will also have short- and long-term objectives they will work on to improve their aspects of the website.

DEPARTMENT COORDINATION
Each Department will be headed by one or two Leads. It is the Leads job to help coordinate with their Team Members to make sure that everything is running smoothly and that everyone is helping out to carry their weight. There will be a channel for your Team on the Staff Discord for this purposes, but you can also use PMs, DMs, or Skype. Remember, Team Lead(s), it’s not your job to be a villainous middleman, so if someone has suddenly vanished without letting anyone know, that’ll be something that I’ll handle.

INTER-DEPARTMENT COORDINATION
It’s important that all Departments coordinate to some extent. The Reading Team will work hand-in-hand with the Distribution Team to process updates, for instance. Moves and Joining will have to coordinate for applicants with complicated Moves. Storyteller and Reading Teams will coordinate with IC issues like high-profile bounty incidents.

INTER-DEPARTMENT WORK
Departments are intended to function independently of one another; however, if you see another Department struggling for X, Y, or Z reason, you can reach out to help them. Please make sure you communicate with the Team Lead first to ask them if they want help. It’s possible that Person A on their Team will be handling that, but they can’t get to it until the weekend. The Lead might also just want to handle that (‘department pride’, I don’t know). Sprites may not work outside of their Department.

DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW AND MEMBERS

READING/GRADING <Whirda (L), Kelly, and Luci>
This Department is the people who love to read, have the time to read, and who will be impartial in how they assess bonuses in the Bonus Request thread. They must also be willing to serve as Judges for PvP when requested.

MOVES <Dane and Daniel (Co-Leads)>
This Department will be behind the Move Approval thread, which everyone here ever understands is its own endeavor at times. Please stay out of the Move Creation Workshop, because that should be your number one tool to see which members might be ready to join your Team.

DISTRIBUTION <Wyatt (L) and Vision>
The sexiest Department. These individuals will process all OM-related updates. The most important parts of this are the Voting Thread and the Bonus Request Thread. While Cherubs and Angels always have access to editing OM, all members of this Team will as well. These individuals will be responsible for "Inactivating" character, but anyone can Reactivate characters. You are the people who aren’t afraid to get into the nitty-gritty of the clerical stuff. You know that you are an integral cog in the machine.

JOINING <Elfailzalot (L) and Yuuka)
This Department deals with Join Apps. They must be personable and willing to help prospective members who may be young or non-native English speakers. You will also be responsible for NPC Approvals, because they often take the same form as Join Apps. Team Leader will have ACP access to edit user names to process switches. Any complex Moves should be passed over to the Move Approval thread.

STORYTELLER <Blink and the Humble Sage (Co-Leads)>
This Department will head up the Storyteller account, which entails responding to IC events and/or being willing to write NPC vignettes. These Team members will also work with Alex to keep all the Info Threads up-to-date. In the event that Quests return, these members will be responsible for content creation in that realm.

MISC <Trixie (IT), Jade Harley (PR), Alex>
This is for individuals who had an extra job on top of having to be a staff member. Examples include IT and Social Outreach/Advertising. Because they will deal with their own special set of 'extra curricular activities,' these staffers are considered 'Free Agents' and can coordinate with any Department they would like to help or they can just focus on their extra curricular. I (Alex) am also here, because I'll be helping out any Department that needs it, but my main focus will be "Lore". Even back when I was a simple member, that was always what I loved most about this place.

[Alex]

The "Omni Theme/Retro Theme" is now the Default theme.

This is to address an issue with the Revolution theme (it's acting strange but only for unregistered users).

Until we can fix it, OG will be the Default for visitors.

[Alex]

I am experimenting with 'centralizing' a lot of the most commonly used update threads into one forum. While I have moved several threads into a new 'Update One Stop' forum, there are still redirect links so no one should be confused or lost.

I dunno if this will ease anything or if I'm just motivated by how much I hate having 8 stickies in forums. Let me know your thoughts.

[Alex]

Civic (Cell/Illidan/Jim) has joined the staff as a Sprite and will be part of the Joining Team.

[Alex]

Vasty Deep Information thread updated post-DD -> http://omniverse-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=18

Blue Flame Island and the Sabaody Archipelago have ceased to function as subzones following their destruction at the hands of Nebula's friends. Surviving inhabitants will have scattered or relocated to smaller, decentralized locales in the Deep.

[Alex]

Also, Rapture has closed its doors to outsiders.

A bounty will be placed on anyone who tries to enter the city (they will know you're there, but you're more than welcome to be stupid)

[Alex]

Something that early 2017 Alex probably should have done, but I went ahead and added the list of Achievements (http://omniverse-rpg.com/achievements.php#Achievements) to the Rules Index. Expect some more overhauls to the current achievements 'system' (if you can call it that) in the near future.

[Trixie]

An option to change your avatar has been added to the mobile theme. It's located under your User CP menu. 

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]