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Anny Thundergirl - Monria Media Team
As we embark upon our fourth year as a new community in this reality-distorted field of existence, I have somehow managed to wake from each fever dream nightmare unanchored with no explicable reason. While others fall prey to the dark forces that make every attempt to invade our senses, I am spared, but as inexplicable as it may be, I believe I am getting closer to this exceptionally broad display of cat and mouse.
As I collect bits of people and assemble them, I am putting pieces of a puzzle together without knowing what the picture is, and this is quite an info imbalance. I feel that I am dealing with an elastic evidentiary bar that continues to be stretched just beyond an opportunity to truly connect the dots. The frustration is very unnerving at times when I feel that I have made progress that will be beneficial to the community.
In spite of efforts, there is a corrosive dynamic that I fear will have lasting implications, and will imperil any attempt to officiate a compromise toward having a peaceful coexistence with the creatures on Monria. We have weathered many storms the past three years, but it's an adhoc arbitrary situation which seems to change at will with every new discovery and unraveled mystery. The secrets revealed thus far are disturbing, although I tend to think that they are more in our favor than not ... time will tell.
I remember while still living on Earth, it was said that you should figure out who you are and then live your life on purpose. That's just the thing, I always thought I knew who I was as I followed my passion as a writer and investigative journalist. I've worked with many who have given me opportunities to chase after my dreams; from Senator Calvin Neff on Cyrene, to General Winslow Anderson from the Intergalatic Space Mission Agency (ISMA) on Earth where I first met him and who now oversees our Monria DSEC Military operation. And of course, Eugenio Anhithe Wilde, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Monria Management Team and governing body on Monria who has been my greatest experience benefactor of all, and I am very grateful.
However, it seems that the path to my destiny has been littered with manipulations, and all is not what it seems, but time has taught me that despite distractions, there's a lot of good on Monria. Our ever-evolving community has given us immense pleasure and pride, but more so, great inspiration and determination to continue our efforts toward expanding the vision of Monria's destiny.
Growing a community is time-consuming, but it gives many rewards in the process. Working with program teams is key in determining how best to facilitate our services. We are fortunate to have many members of our community who have volunteered their time to work in tandem with us to accomplish this, and their ideas help to inspire improved efforts toward being more effective and efficient.
Monria Space Travel Program (MSTP)
This program was our first and has been consistent in its management by The Knights of Entropia (TKoE) leadership team of Shade and Lami. This program is not a full-on warping service, but was created to be more Monria-related and associated with our new Monrian Born players, and apartment and shop owners who all get the free space travel benefit. However, while we only fly a schedule on Fridays and Sundays, others can be added to the Yamato guest list and fly the route for 7 peds. Schedule and fees are here.
We have learned a lot during the past three years, and have made changes that were more beneficial in the overall effectiveness of the program. We continually review how to make the program more efficient based on our experiences, as well as the ever-changing environment. We are grateful to the TKoE team of management and crew for their unwavering support in providing this service to our community and beyond.
Monria Repair Skilling Program (MRSP)
While this program has been slow-going at times, we are discussing ways we might be able to revitalize it so that it's a more vital program for our community. The challenge we have at times is time-zones, because we don't have a 24/7 repair program. We rely on Yamato pilots and their availability, and we are hoping that we can progress with this service with a bit of tweaking. The Yamato pilots and those who provide this service have their own dedicated section at the forum to make repair skilling announcements. This method will continue unless we determine that something else would work better.
The goal is to get more of our new Monrian Born players aboard the Yamato for repairs to increase skills. We have a consistent influx of new Monrian Born players, so it's important to keep this program operating. Our Monrian Born Program provides benefits that help get our new players started, while also giving them opportunities to explore other parts of our universe. This will be ramped up during the course of this year. The Monrian Born field trips are being restructured to include more field trips and more opportunities.
Monrian Born Program
Our focus has always been community-driven, and developing programs that would benefit all, especially our new Monrian Born players. The Monrian Born Program has evolved over the past three years to broaden the experiences of our new players, and we have been pleasantly surprised how the community as a whole has rallied to be supportive of this program. We continually tweak things to be more efficient, and we will continue to do so. We learn what works, and what doesn't work.
It's difficult to catch every new Monrian Born in order to give them the MB starter kit because we aren't online 24/7, but we have another exceptional team in a different time zone than mine who are very helpful.
Monria Community Assistance Team (MCAT)
This Community Initiative Program (CIP) is co-managed by Malgar and Shadow (husband and wife team). This program was designed to be of help to all Monria community members, but they are exceptional in also supporting the Monrian Born Program, as well as assisting visitors from other areas of the universe. As they are so active with this program, and available daily, it has been decided that this will be the premiere support team to be of assistance to our community members and visitors.
As such, it has been decided that we will discontinue the Monria Volunteer Support Team (MVST) program as it basically does the same thing. Most members of MVST are also members of MCAT, so this should be a smooth transition. All of our Monria community volunteers are very much appreciated. The MCAT program will be expanded, and anyone wishing to join must have good knowledge of Monria and how we do things, which is different than any other location in the universe. This is important in order to be efficient and serve the members of our community, with a focus on our Monrian Born.
Monria Volunteer Mentors
This is a Community Initiative Program (CIP) that has also been beneficial for our Monrian Born. Several of our veteran Monria community members have stepped forward to mentor our MBs, and it has worked out very well. The dedicated section at the forum is set up for each MVM to introduce themselves and why they would be a good Monria-related mentor. Hopefully, we will have more join this team over the course of time. There is also a Guide on How to Choose a Mentor which is worth reading for new Monrian Born players.
However, we have discovered that there are those not associated with Monria to any great degree who are taking some of our MBs on as Disciples and telling them to leave Monria because it's "not a good planet to start on," which everyone knows is not true. We have the only comprehensive new player program of any location in the universe to assist our new players to get started and to enhance their experiences. We are making some changes to hopefully minimize this sort of thing from happening. It's unfair to the new player since they don't have a full understanding yet of what their benefits are. We are monitoring this situation.
Monria Events
The updated event schedule for 2019 is posted here. Any extra events will be announced at the forum, in our Monria ad terminal, on social media, and will be added to this event schedule. We are a Moon and not a planet, and therefore, we do not have a global event system on Monria where we can post to alert all in the universe. Perhaps one day it will change, but it is not available to us currently.
The mid-month events will also be restructured as it relates to regular mob-related ped prizes and random global prizes that are given out. As a result of quite a large increase in our Monrian Born population, and the cost of starter kits and other items we provide for our new players, we need to make adjustments with event prizes. Our Monrian Born Program has always been our primary focus.
The mob-related ped prizes going forward will be as shown in the Jan 19th mid-month event thread here. The random global prizes will be less and based on overall budget availability. We will revisit this structure after our next release, which of course we cannot reveal at this time when it will be, but soon. We will choose random global prizes that will work for all, such as the portable units and other things, and this will begin with the mid-month event on Jan 19th.
We have now set a standard increased mob spawn program that will be the same every event, except for our bigger events where we may add something extra, such as the biggest event of the year, St Patrick's Day.
Monria Shop Owners and Shopkeeper Apartment Shops
We have several shop owners and shopkeeper apartment shop owners who have been consistent in supplying our community with what is needed. I personally shop with them for some of the items needed in our Monrian Born Program, but also for prizes I give out at events. We want to support our shop owners in every way possible, which is why we don't focus on the Monria Auction so much. The Monria Directory also gives locations to all shops and apartments and who the estate owner is, and is a downloadable PDF.
Shop owners don't just sell things to the community, they have also donated items for the Monrian Born starter kits, as well as prizes for our events. It's unfortunate though, that more of our shop owners aren't as active as some, but I think that will change in the near future as we add more content. In the meantime, we are very grateful to the consistent service that so many do provide for our community members and visitors. We also appreciate their patience while we continue with our development.
Development
There is a great deal of work being done behind the scenes in preparation for our next release. I think most in the community now know that our releases are not that frequent, as well as the reasons. However, there is great care that is taken to assure that what is delivered to the community has purpose, but is also fun and entertaining, as well as an opportunity to gain more skills. There is a specific vision in mind aside from the special things that are added, and the patience of the community is appreciated.
We don't reveal release dates in case anything has to be changed or altered at the last minute. It's always good to be discerning in this respect so that we don't run into an issue and not be able to deliver as stated ahead of time. I think you can all understand why this is done, but it's also fun to experience the big reveal, especially since Anhithe delivers it with such zeal and storyline. We also like our releases to be surprising.
The one thing we want to do is blend development and storyline, as well as utilize some of the ideas that our own community members have come up with, which has actually been done already, but will continue.
Monria Official Storyline
Monria's storyline is ever shifting with twists and turns, and revealing secrets that have an effect not only on the community as a whole, but specific characters and members of the community who are not who we know them to be. It has more of an effect on my interaction with them as Monria Management and Community Manager, but the implications for the safety and security of Monria hangs in the balance.
We have published four volumes to date in downloadable PDF format which can be accessed by clicking on the title link of this section. There was a recent change in volumes 5 and 6 which are books that Pinthas and I are writing. Pinthas was tied up in real life for a while and unable to work on his Tales from the Deep, so I am switching volumes with him. His next book will be volume 6 and mine will be volume 5, and I will begin writing the continuation of where volume 4 left off relatively soon. Pinthas will have a less pressured opportunity to work on his book which is quite involved because it too will reveal new characters, as well as exposing current ones who we need to be very aware of for safety reasons.
My journey into the deeper recesses of Monria will not only draw out more dark forces unknown to us at present, but also lead me on a path of self-discovery. I keep being told by several now (who have recently been revealed in volume 4) that I will learn who I am and what my purpose is on Monria, and that it has to be learned over time. It's all very confusing to me at times, because some of the experiences are not only intense, but mind bending. If you are unfamiliar with our storyline, it's best to start with volume one so that the rest of it makes sense. It's an evolving storyline that will take many directions.
Forum Content
Over the course of several weeks, I will be purging and updating content at the Monria forum to be more consistent with current information and activities. We would like our mob information to be more accurate because some things have changed, and will continue to change.
The updating will affect our Community Initiative Programs (CIP), as well as the section we have provided on our Monria Creatures | History & Data | Missions information. I added the 11 Monria Beginner Missions with graphics and extra information to help facilitate accomplishing the missions. A couple of them are tricky and the information will help. We also have the Monria Mob Levels, HP | Wave and Pet Locations PDF that is downloadable for convenience. This too will be updated as needed.
The Progress Updates that Anhithe and I were providing to the community here and here kind of went by the wayside due to an enormously busy schedule for both of us, but I'm hoping that for 2019 we can revive this. Ant is more busy these days, so it might be a hit and miss for him, but I will make every effort to keep mine going. If you ever have time or an inclination to read any of them, it will give you an idea of how we have progressed over time. There will be a lot of updates at the forum, so keep an eye out for them.
In the Meantime
Thank you for your continued patience and support, we appreciate it and will continue to work hard to bring more enjoyable experiences to Monria. Make sure to post your suggestions and ideas here.
Oh, and BTW ... there's a very good reason why the Monria Moon is green ... stay tuned.
