Introduction

Evening space cowboys. It’s time for another Herald report!

This one’s a bit late. Mostly due to lack of things to report and my busy work with Possessions items.

Without further ado, here we go...

Herald Fiction update!

Consolidation - Part III

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Florrum System, Sertar sector Black Sun safehouse, Florrum

Kaal Sakoss — a Gotal smuggler of poor renown and even poorer stature — sat in a chair in the office of one of Sertar sector’s most notorious crime bosses. He held a drink in his sweaty hand and tried to keep the shakes from revealing his anxiety to anyone perceptive enough to notice. Kaal’s eyes shifted from one person to the next, hoping that none of the Black Sun goons would jump out at him and do any one of the unspeakable things he had heard about.

Vehdo, the Iktotchi Black Sun boss who controlled most of the operations in the Sertar sector, seemed at ease and relaxed in his own leather-bound chair. His feet were on the table and he drank a shot of high-end Corellian whiskey he had shared with the obviously terrified and no less paranoid Gotal.

“Relax, Kaal,” Vehdo said with a glint in his smile. “I’m sure your partner will be back soon with our earnings. After all, a deal is a deal.”

Read more…

Spooktober results!

Spooktober was fun! 13 people in total participate. I would like to thank everyone who did so and supported the competition. Unfortunately, there can be only one winner.

Spooktober 2016. Winner is: Atra Ventus

Congratulations. His custom robe will be on display next month.

Congrats to Qyreia Arronen and Zehsaa Hysh on a shared second place. Well done :D

October release!

As before, let’s pull the rabbit out of the hat first. New items for your dossiers are here ;)

Weapons:

Item 1: Quarterstaff - Available for JM1+

Made by: Arcia Cortel

Item 2: Jian Dao lightsaber - Available for EQ2+

Made by: Solas Night-Thorn

Item 3: Arg'garok axe - Available for JM2+

Made by: Zehsaa Hysh

Robes

Item 4: Spacer robes - Available to all JM2+

Made by: Arcia Cortel

Item 5: Raiden robes - Available to all EQ1+

Made by: Rian Taldrya

The Herald's staff hopes you enjoy the new goodies :D

Possessions - Finished!

Showcase

These are some of the examples of the images we’ve been doing for Possessions, and I’m happy to say that all of them have been finished on schedule.

About the project

When I first stepped up as Herald I was immediately told that the Herald’s office would have to work on Possessions images at one point. To be honest, i wasn’t happy with the prospect. For one, there were a lot of uncertainties at the time: like which items would be chosen? Would they have images on Wookieepedia? Would we have to draw from descriptions? How would we go about doing these images: from scratch or no? How many items would there be?

All of that simmered away as the project took root and, with the help of my staff as well as James and Evant, we bulldozed through. A total of 675+ images have been done for this project. Most are free use from the movies or series, with others being our own images from the selector. The template we used (the holographic glow) was entirely our creation.

Now, this says “finished” but it’s not really finished. Meaning we’ll still be working on new items as they come down the line. Now, I’d like to address some future ideas we have. Fair Warning before we start:

THESE ARE JUST IDEAS SO FAR. THEY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Dossier images and Possessions

Everyone is interested in this topic and I hope to answer some of the questions you may have. I’ll start with a few key phrases I will use from now on: “items” and “skins”.

Items include the things you can buy through possessions. These are not in any way connected to your dossiers at the moment. Meaning, if you buy a lightsaber, you will not be able to put it on your dossier just by virtue of owning it.

This is here Skins come in. Skins are the current idea we have of how to combine the current dossier image system with Possessions. They are essentially a name for dossier graphics bound to specific items you own.

The theory for now is that you will be able to buy any item in Possessions and be able to choose a skin (if it exists) of that item to display on your dossier.

I have to warn you once again, this is all very much in the idea phase and we have to polish it to make it work well. This will most likely come into effect after the launch of the system, as we determine the best course of action. Until then, the old system will remain in place.

So what does this mean for the old system?

Suffice to say that the old way we have handled selector images will most likely go away. You’ll still be able to choose what you show off on your dossier, but through Possessions instead of independently. Your skins will be assigned to certain items you own and thereby you will we able to choose them. This also means that most of the requirements in the old system, like rank requirements for certain weapons, will be slightly changed. How these changes will proceed I don’t know yet, but I promise I will tell you more as I myself know more.

For anyone wondering what this will mean for Custom weapons and robes, fear not. They will remain the same. You will still have to submit the request, but this time for a skin. They will still be free but you will also have to own the item in question to submit a request. This will significantly streamline the whole process since you will be able to request a custom skin for ANY weapon or robe (looking at you Elders) that we have in Possessions. Hopefully, even the request forms will be greatly simplified. The only thing that will not change are Warbanners. They will remain the same as they have always been.

I hope this gives you some answers to unanswered questions. If you have more, please contact me on Telegram or mail and I’ll gladly help out.

Herald survey - reminder!

Everyone loves surveys! Not really, but this one is necessary.

We've created a survey that you can fill in and, hopefully, influence what way future graphics in the Club move forward. We're looking for honest opinions, so type in anything you can think of that you consider important.

• Click here for the survey

Warbanners, Custom Robes, Custom Weapons and Requests

Let’s start with:

Custom Weapons

By Arcia:

• Nero’s sniper rifle

By Rian:

• Raiju’s dual hilts

By Vyr:

• Seth Danner’s blaster pistol
• Mauro Wynter’s dual blasters
• Marick’s sbaer and hidden blade
• Kreeayt Havok’s Golden lightsaber

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Custom Robes

None

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Warbanners

by Solas:

• Raiju Kang
• Scarlet Agna

by Rian:

• Firith'rar J Versea-Stormwind
• Talis DeMorte
• Ka Tarvitz
• Tharess Crestar

By Arcia:

• Rins'zler Sang-Kalinor

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Graphics Requests

By Arcia:

• Xolarin
• Ernordeth Puer-Irae

By Rian:

• Tamashi Adaephon Delat

By Vyr:

• Darius Tu'Kul

There’s a Form for that

• Warbanner Request

• Custom Weapons Request

• Leadership Graphics Request

• Complaints

• Herald FAQ

DB Art Community Telegram Group

If you’re interested in joining the TG group and sharing your art, be sure to click the image below:

Ask the Herald

Featured Question

Evant asked: #asktheherald without getting into execution details, how do you feel possessions will improve or otherwise harm members experience with when it comes to showing off graphics or feeling rewarded by unlocking or gaining access to them on their dossier?

Possessions will be a positive step towards giving people more choices in the long run. The current system is good and has been good for years, but with Possessions it is obsolete. You feel rewarded by gaining credits for what you do in the club and buying the items you really want. Really the feeling of being rewarded won't really go away, it will just change in the new system. This is just from the members' perspectives. There are also positive outcomes for the herald's office. We get to work with the Regent more closely for any future items. basically the Regent and Herald will become co-dependant pretty soon. Possessions also gives us the ability to new dossier graphics from an existing pool of items, without the need to come up with new ones. Overall I think Possessions is a positive step.

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Tisto asked: #AsktheHerald are there any custom melee weapons for NFU's or just the blasters

You can request any melee items you want. I would suggest looking at Possessions for inspiration.

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Tisto asks: #AsktheHerald Having only been in one GJW myself I have wondered what role the Herald plays in the planning of such events

I make the graphics events, event graphics, proof the event fiction and handle some of the judging.

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Tisto asks: #AsktheHerald Do you have any idea who started this trend of having members ask questions for the report?

Probably Muz. I recall he had this a few years back.

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Nero asks: #AsktheHerald When is the next stream/youtube video going out? :P

When I’m not as busy as I am now. You will be informed.

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Frosty asks: #asktheherald you posted a poll a week or two back with some overwatch skins. Will we be seeing some of those in the future?

Yes. There will be at least a Widowmaker and Reaper variant in the future.

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Lexic asks: #asktheherald In the last year that has passed since you were in office, have you accomplished everything you set out to do this year?

Yes. My main goal was to finish Possessions, all else being secondary. However there are still a few goals I would like to complete by New Year’s.

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Nero asks: #AsktheHerald What's your favorite part of possessions?

Excuse my candor: The fact that the Clans are sweating over what fleets to make. It's thoroughly entertaining to watch.

And: #AsktheHerald What's your least favorite part of possessions?

Having to set up my loadouts.

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Len Eode asks: #AskTheHerald Will you be handling custom possessions or is that all through the Regents office?

I’ve addressed our current ideas up in my report. That should suffice as an answer for now. There will be no custom items, only custom skins.

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Arden asks: #asktheherald With all the new options possessions up, is there any intention of expanding custom weapon options, particularly for the non lightsaber inclined.

You will, quite literally, be able to request a custom skin for any weapon in Possessions. At least, that is the hope.

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Turel asks: #asktheHerald How do you envision the role the Matron and associated criminal elements plays in both collective and individual stories of DB members. Do you foresee it enduring after your term?

My intention with the Matron is to establish a "fourth party" on the darker side of the fence. The idea behind it is to have a collective of criminals, bounty hunters and other "scum of the galaxy" as a counterweight to the GMRG, INQ and SA. That idea, I believe, will endure even after my term. Whether the Matron remains as I envisioned her is not as important. You could achieve the same idea with a moon, planet or space station. I hope that the Matron will at least inspire members to explore some other avenues of storytelling, not just the three available on either side of the fence (because GMRG, INQ and SA, as ideas, are not limited to the Dark path, neither should the criminal element be).

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Sildrin asks: #asktheherald how mandatory will be possessions for fictions? E.g. Would my post be down voted if my character used matches and she doesn't have matches on the dossier?

That would be a Voice question, indeed. But my opinion is that, no, you won't be docked for common sense. I don't think your Loadout is meant to be everything you can own but more of convenient list of things you use most often in a fight or any other hostile situation.

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Zujenia asks: #AskTheHerald Are we going to see the Weekly Herald's Challenge continue?

Yes. We’re planning more of these comps in the future. We’re just on a short hiatus now. We’ll be back soon.

Commission artists and Artist Feature

Every report I will present an artist from various sites on the internet that do commission work. You can directly contact them through their contacts on these pages:

This time it's: dartbaston. Check out their devArt page for info and enjoy the art.

Closing word

That’s it for now, folks. This is your friendly neighborhood Herald, signing out.

See you, space cowboys!

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