A slowdown in titles has allowed me to put gold into acre buys. I’m finally over 1200 personal acres. It will be a long time before I cap at 2000 — on the whole I’d just as soon spend gold on amnesties, titles, and bulk land grants for all of you.

Which gives me an idea. If everyone who is a prince or princess gave me just one acre ih a week, that’s a savings to me of close to 100 million gold versus buying acres myself. And 100 million gold can title 8-12 candidates (with the associated 50 acres gained!) or pay for 20 or more amnesties or land grants depending on timing. Something to think about.

And something else to think about — Princess Tascha Klees got her 1000th personal acre last night. This gives her one of the three requirements she needs to become a Vicereine in our kingdom. The other two are completing 16 of the 17 Path to Royalty steps (stopping just short of coronation) and reaching 20,000 total acres (she’s over 15,000 now). I would be very happy to have one of my first three recruits as our first Grand Vicereine. WTG!

Radio Riel is a streaming music/program service in Second Life (and available on the Internet) with a public radio feel about it. Their playlist is vast and eclectic. It was launched in July 2007 in Caledon, and their following has spread.

Terpsichore Tuesday will run every Tuesday night from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific time (SLT). The program will explore the wide variety of danceable music across time and space. Future installments will be presented by a rotation of staff presenters, and the City of Enoch is pleased to play host to the broadcasts and a weekly dance on the park grounds.

To receive Radio Riel in Second Life, set your parcel media stream to http://music.radioriel.org for the main stream 24/7. Terpsichore Tuesday will broadcast on the event stream, http://music2.radioriel.org.

To visit Kingdom Park for the dances at each live broadcast, the SLURL is http://slurl.com/secondlife/City%20of%20Enoch/68/172/26.

PROCLAIMS:

• That the Central Square of the sim called Adam ondi Ahman and the establishment called Brother Brigham’s on the sim called Bountiful are declared TE-FREE ZONES;
• That from this day forward Her Majesty’s subjects must not discuss in open chat the business pertaining to the games Tiny Empires and Tiny Empires 3000 in these TE-free zones, that the harmony of the community may be maintained;
• That the open wearing of Tiny Empires-related titles, apparel, and other items that may exist or come into existence in these TE-free zones is strongly discouraged.

We also request that the subjects of brother and sister kingdoms who become aware of this declaration honour its provisions voluntarily.

Given under Our Hand and Seal in Court in the City of Enoch this eighteenth day of April, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Nine,

Valentine Janus.

(SEAL)

(The enthusiasm of Tiny Empires players for this highly habit-forming game does not always sit well with our neighbours. In particular, it has been known to hijack social occasions instituted for other purposes. By asking the kingdom to limit TE-talk at the two places in our larger community that host most social events, I hope it will establish our goodwill and help others to enjoy their Second Life as well.)

As of this morning the firm has not quite 1,700 ships, with eight members of the kingdom serving as my direct subordinates:

• Broker Kat Burger
• Trade Baroness Pear Dumpling
• Trade Baroness Barbara Collazo
• Trade Baroness Andromeda Luminos
• Trader Myfi Lundquist
• Trader Bart Baramm
• Trader Kelly Chronowire
• Trader Otenth Paderborn

Kingdom members actively playing outside Hagoth Exploration include my allies Mogul Eternally Timeless (in New Deseret as Sariah Plutonian) and Mogul Tascha Klees.

So far the most interesting changed mechanic is colonies — the TE3K replacement for citizens. No longer is your capacity for citizens/colonists tied solely to the size and ranks of your downline. And you don’t buy an extra HUD to start using those features.

There are three different styles of colony, which might be loosely classed as mining worlds, settlement worlds, and bases or ships. All colonists on each count alike every two years for added income (sound familiar?). But each colony type also influences another game factor. Mining worlds provide additional windfalls of credits. Settlement worlds appear to influence how much you get every two years for your colonists. And bases and ships reduce your cost for responding to disasters (or at least the research option; more data needs to be gathered).

New title applications are strongly encouraged. Custom titles add to the fun, and the acres received with a first title build the kingdom relatively inexpensively. From an earlier post:

Anyone ranked Baron or higher may apply for a title by sending me a notecard in-world with the title you want. (I set the minimum to Baron so we know that any grantee is on the full HUD.) Titles are a maximum of 20 letters and spaces, and they replace (on the HUD) your ordinary game rank. They must be PG — no problem for us! — and the Emperor frowns upon titles that would increase drama through direct jabs at other individuals or kingdoms. If I don’t think your submission will be suitable I will work with you privately to tweak it.

While the order in which the titles are requested is respected, since the process requires that the recipient, the Crown, and a HUD offer all be online together the actual order of grants is often dictated by who is available now.

Keep those creative ideas flowing!

• Tiny Empires on April Fool’s Day
• The First Tiny Empires 3000 Standings Page

And I was privileged to view something seen only a handful of times in SL history — the return of the village in Caledon Brigadoon.

There is a small glade on that sim, populated by badgers and deer and the occasional rather large and nasty snake. (Can you say “scripted hissy fit?”) Wild mushrooms grow.

But about once every couple of months, for an hour or two, the mists rise and a quiet village appears. I had heard tales of this since the creation of Caledon Brigadoon. This time, thanks to an alert from Mr. Jameson Despres, I was able to wander the streets for myself.

I received the call a bit after 4 am on the 2nd, and traveled to the new Museum of Caledon History site about 4:45 am. After a short walk up the hill to the west, I beheld a handful of buildings, streets, even a bridge that simply were Not There before. And shortly after my return to the museum, perhaps by 5:30 am, they were gone again.

I had hoped to share the experience in more detail, but I find that my pictures simply did not capture the sights. In my experience as chief archivist of the Caledon Research Institute, I have come upon this phenomenon before. Records have a way of vanishing, and only the legends remain. Yet now I have seen, and if all I have is my story and my memories, so be it.

• The left sidebar has been modified to include the last known trader sighting — useful information any time.
• The pages Alliances and The Trader have been eliminated. The first was not seeing use; the second is simply not possible to keep up and of dubious use even if it were possible to fill the holes.
• Two new titles were granted: Cavalry Commander ParleyPorter Michigan and Night Owl Debbye Dover. We welcome more titles for more people, alts too.

The new platform is 725m up, more than 200m above the sky castle. It features a show jumping course to challenge your equestrian skills, the Berzerker Battle System for melee combat, and the Wizardry game for duels between spellcasters. For jumping, bring your own horse. For Berzerker, you can buy a free set of weapons and equipment right there. I still need to set up the ability to get the Wizardry HUDs on site.

Watch for information about The Beehive Legion, a new in-world group to support riding, flying, nautical activities, and the combat games of Berzerker, Combat Cards, En Garde!, and Wizardry. It’s been ostensibly organised “for the defence of the State of New Deseret”, including air force, navy, cavalry, light and heavy infantry, and arcanist groups. What it will really do is put together events for members and the public. If you want to join now, it’s a token L$20, open enrollment.

Also, congratulations to new title holders: Carefully Corrugated Cardboard Macarthur, Court Musician Tascha Klees, and Trombone Princess Seth Troell!

A host of players across kingdom lines have been pooling data trying to work through a solution. Part of the fun is that there is more than one solution — the Emperor appears to be using at least four different series to set his puzzles.

New Deseretians Austin Shepherd, Talia Rosher, and Sariah Plutonian have been at the cutting edge of this work, and the notes I publish below come from them and many others.

Series 1: Number of letters in the names of the months: 7 8 5 5 3 4 4 6 9 7 8 8
Series 2: Number of letters in the names of the numbers 1-10: 3 3 5 4 4 3 5 5 4 3
Series 3: Appears to be a simple repeating pattern: 3 4 5 5 4 3 3 4 5 5 4 3
Series 4: So far this series is still a mystery; I’ll go find the current construction of the list.

Well done, Terra Aurea!