Welcome to Gaia! ::

07/06/05
Tattoo shop coming out soon with a pair of NPCs, one a girl with her tongue peirced, and a big red/black guy named Deven(sp?). Shortly after the tattoo parlor, we should see the Train come into town to take our houses to be placed on the Gaia towns system. VO is working on the backs of avatars and the related items, as well as sitting positions of these characters.

this will allow us to more completely make use of our houses, and then will be adapted to the walking avatars. Immediately after walking avatars, it may be possible to have Tattoos that show up on the back of your Avvies. Bald head will now become a standard hair cut feature.
Tattoos will require a permanent avvie change like hair cuts.

Beware of the SIG! if you do not obey TOS signature 500x500 pixel 100k or less sig rules, or other possible TOS penalties, you're going to lose your sig, and have to pay gold to get it re activated. This appears to be stage 1 of Karma code. As some of you know, Karma code has been in the works since 2003, and was originally expected to arrive about the same time as the Casino.

A music shop is opening soon, and there will be gaia township radios, although we do not know yet if it will be more MIDI or MP3 styled. Battle system is still way in the background, however, the class/job system appears to be scheduled for nearly right after the Trains for township.

The guidelines on the Towns is this: It will not cost you anything yo place your fist house, but then when you want to move it, it will cost a fee, so place your houses carefully. My own house will most likely be located in a Lu Bu neighborhood, although if you are interested, Alexandria can set up a Captian's Nieghborhood.

Thus, jobs/classes should be released aproximately the same time you would expect to see tattoos on the backs of your Avatars. Do expect to see a large volume of Tatoo requests in the Feedback forum. Piercings, such as earings, may acompany the Tattoo parlor, although earing would have to either be glowing or especially gawdy to be seen. (thankfully, most chibi earings in anime are anyways... Magic Knights of Raeyrth, anyone?)

The entire line of furniture is rendered in 3 d graphics, so all the people who complain about Gaia going three D need to realize a huge portion of Gaia is ALREADY in 3d. New Rares such as nitemare coffins and angelic chairs will be coming out as well at a bat phone and Television.

Animated items are going to be attempted very soon.

Although I do not have a date for the Karma Code's release, if ever, it seems as if it will be finalized when most of the other systems are complete. Right now it is looking like the Quest system is a bit further ahead than the battle system, so we should see parts of it released first. I am uncertain if the job system and the quest systems will be connected or not.

So it should look vaguely something like this:
Gothic lolita item release-->donation item release-->Tattoo Shop--|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------V
Battle?<--Quests<--Jobs/Classes<--Walking Avatars<--Train station




06/24/05
June donation items released. A phoenix circlet that transformed into wierd shapes and locations, and a Dragon Skull that transforms into different Armor peices.


06/20/05
Archives ulocked for the majority, although search feature rendered nearly inoperable. Some threads still backlogged in time, but front pages generally display. New text alignment. available. Fishing currently appears to be down, particularly the ability to buy bait.
Gaian economy appears to be reducing the price of upper end items by as much as 20% to date. (liek a 5 or 6 million item dropping to around 4 million).


06/02/05
the following features are scheduled to be released between now and towards the next major event:

cleaning up of the fallen tower of gambino.
New forum system, including whisper, scream, and parchment
new font system (still hypothetical)
Dice tumbler for public posting of random numbers
inventory item poster (only posts items in your inventory to prove they are there)
Gaia Casino (and new items including wigs)
gaia towns (currently set to 6 homes and about 10 people per area, but they are working on making the numbers bigger)
classes, or something resembling jobs (butcher, baker, candle stick maker?)

pictures will follow as these events are released. It is currently unknown if the next event will either be Summer vacation for students, or the fourth of july, or some other Holiday. Only time will tell ninja



05/22/05
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7833836
we actually have braids for boys now, so you can all put your picket signs away. The next thing in hair I would like to see is pastels. We have new oriental Furnature designs, and I plan on checking those out later today.

Again, Fanime Con is in 5 days in San Jose, at the main convention center right next to the light rail, near down town. If you live in the Bay Area, or have sufficient gas +25-55 bucks to spend, I recommend you check it out. I'm going to be there... broke and half starved, but definitely will be there 3nodding



05/15/05
After a severe market inflation beginning on the Month of May, 5th, 2005, on Friday the 13th, Lanzer declared a massive rollback. This rollback took us to aproximatley 5 AM PST, the 9th. While post counts did not change, the economic transactions caused by an 80 million gold increase in the ecnomy through a bug exploit combined with greed -- was nullified.
Most accounts which were from prior to the 9th recieved a generous compensation of around 1700 gold, while those created after the 9th, were rpeserved, and though their accounts rolled back, recieved a variable of 1700 or less based upon their login time. 3nodding

While many people complained, in the end, many were also glad the rollback took place. Several were virtually uneffected. It took several hours for various parts of Gaia to turn back on, and some parts are still troubled, such as the edit profile (the thing used to change signatures), and a glitch involving duplicate item generation through a certain part of inventory has occured. We would ask you at this time not to toy with your inventory at this time until the announcements have been made of it being fixed, and if you expeirence such technical difficulties (even if advatangeous) please report them immediately.

Gaining 2 million gold for 48 hours doesn't mean anything if you are deleted and banned 72 hours later. (though some will still try)

Advice on the Market: avoid accepting bids which are too HIGH..
avoid buying things which are too drastically LOW. Normally, this seems like a good idea, and is advised, however, we at Alexandria would like to warn those of you who spend a sufficient time in the exchange to look for such deals, there there are perhaps 200 or more items in the exchange at this very moment which might be cloned inventory. If that inventory is cloned, it has an account log, which the Developers can track. Which means it will be tracked to your account, and erased magically.

Thus even if you pay 50,000 gold for a Halo, your Halo will magically be erased, but your 50,000 gold may still be missing, and irrecoverable. eek Not knowing all of the exact details of this bug, it is best to leave it be, and excercise caution.

Other news
our mailbox set up is slightly different, and we have a sort feature with multiple item highlight. It works very smooth, though the most recent items may have icon glitches. Some people are experiencing Hologram avatar items, as I was experiencing in 2004 wit an angelic pendant. Best advice: dont worry about it, and avoid editing your avatar until you have converation directly with a moderator.



05/??/05

Gaia staff will be attending some conventions this month, including Fanime Con in San Jose California, towards the end of this month (27th-31st or so)

As mentioned the Guilds now have a quit button, and Gaia fishing is now Multiplayer. Up to 6 people can play, although the junk rate increased somewhat significantly at first. (it seems to have partially stabilized however) There are new fish including some pink ones from Gambino and some black peeobs from durem 3nodding No new items in that vicinity have been seen yet.
The next major programming effect is either going to be walking avatars or Gaia towns, although the Admins haven't told us yet which one they are working on first.

Immediately following Gaia towns + walking avatars, we should see Gaia Battle System's release, although we remind all who read this:
the first version is NOT the final version. It will be buggy. There will be things we wont like, and there may be things we like which wont last. Yet the bad things can be fixed, and some of the popular features may resurface. Please, have patience 3nodding



04/24/05

Arachnid and Butterfly donations followed the kiki kitty and roro puppy donation items of last month. THese items are quite compatable with many items, something not all donation items can do.
The market place sorting at the vend is back up and running, and some major modifications to the way Gaia processes information has begun. For example, you can now "search" members for their favorite topics. Additionally, Lanzer has set up the gaia systems so they do not need to have operating hard drives to maintain gaia, although we appear to be experiencing some random time rollbacks.
Front pages of many threads are still archived, probably an aspect of the standard archiving plus the hard drive shifts. The next major transitions are in the following order of sequence:

1. fishing 2.0
2. gaia towns
3. gaia battle system
4. mini games/casino

this month's item update also included some ambigendered clothing, only two of which ive come across so far (boots and a head peice for 30,000 called Bao), although there are others... somewhere O_o

This marks the beginning of an upcoming trend, - gender ambiguity in Gaia. Additionally, we recieved some Scottish style clothing 3nodding

Several conventions are on the minds of many gaians, lately, as its been discovered that Gaia has gotten REALLY BIG, and its convention demands are likewise increased. I'll be attending the FanimeCon if at all possible.
- Noire, Alexandria Administration


03/24/05
Item updates, we appear to have a whole bunch of stuff in the Jewelry store now, it seems to specialize in shades and necklaces, and there's some new "company" brandnames, like Midori. It would be interesting to invest in these companies on Gaia ^_^


http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6778791


03/22/05
Gambino Tower is Complete, and the bunnipop log bug has best fixed 3nodding The economy should be booming soon ^_^



03/03/05
Housing is here, and its expensive. as expensive as guilds infact. Expect to pay 1000 to 2000 gold on average for each item and decoration, and plan on having 10-20 of each of those, plus a house upgrade for 20,000.
Total cost?

50,000 gold for a house of reasonable appearance. You can expect houses to have lots of upgrades in the future, including linking houses, and connecting the personal chats directly to them so people in a house can actually interact.

After that, you may expect these houses to appear as neighborhoods. 3nodding

In the meantime, for the Lu Bu guild, one of the projects is to make sure every one in that guild has a house linked the housing threads, not to exceed 14 posts, with the intention of creating "neighborhoods"

If we work this out right, we may be able ot simulate office buildings, training halls and buisineses by carefully arranged furniature and coloring.

Its quite a project, but that's what the Network is here for ^_^



02/22/05
New Hand Held Items !

Hammers in Barton Town
sketch pads and brief cases in Durem HR.W
mini boom boxes (various colors) in Durem outlet
pimp canes in gambino clothes
paint brushes in gambino hats

- might have missed something, but there ya go ^_^



02/21/05
Here are some screen shots of the 2nd annual Gaia Ball they wil most likely stretch the screen as im trying to preserve as much of the screen as possible.

http://www.geocities.com/kamavasayita/gb1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kamavasayita/gb2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kamavasayita/gb3.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kamavasayita/gb4.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kamavasayita/gb5.jpg

Thank you for choosing the Network !

(man, we really need a better name... sweatdrop )


02/14/05

The SNOW is GONE! today is the start of gaia's valentine's day event, of which no one is allowed to know until the last minute... houses are coming out very soon, and next month is St. Patricks Day and Easter..
because of these upcoming holidays, if you are an investor, you are going to want green clothing and bunny/chicky items.
That means bunny slippers and chicky hats etc. Unfortunately for most of the population, those slippers are in the millions. eek

more information to come as the events unfold smile


02/12/05
Gaia has been crashing frequently lately, my fishing rod is buggy, bank trades are unsafe until further notice (shops still seem to work fine), and Lanzer is trying to "BORG" Gaia - meaning "decentralize", so if any part of the system goes down, the whole thing will not go down..

this is identical to the original goal of building the Internet, and is a marvelous and visionary goal. As you know, very few systems in the world are constructed with such levels of secure back up and redundancy, among them, militaries, mega corporations like Intel, IBM, and Microsoft, and ISPs, like AOL and Prodigy.

if the admins can ever see this: my advice:
"Steady as she goes, One step at a time"

01/20/05

Gaia has just added the report feature for posts, and the report feature for threads.

It has also added a small annotation to your Mail, resembling a red blot.

Also note, that if you have blue highlights on members in your mailbox, it means they are on your friends list. This is also an added feature. heart


For further information, link to here
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=274141536#274141536

aka Jakobo's announcement

if there are any updates I have missed, please feel free to let me know, so this list can be up-to-date.

- Noire

(for future reference, System wide changes will be placed here for archival purposes, to keep track of the progress of Gaia)

The Houses are almost complete ^_^

VO announced late Tuesday Evening that houses are almost complete, and in the announcement link to the preview, the houses appear to be located in another town, with a new group of NPCs!

You know what that means, you probably have only a few more weeks to make money before the big flood of houses takes place. We as of yet do not know if they are connected to guild gold, and we are better off assuming that they are not. It is a good idea to assume everything in gaia some how relates to Gaia gold. (example: art medals sell for millions), and quickly acquiring as much money as you can at this time would be advisable, and by money, we mean PURE.

once we figure out what the investment of houses will take, if its free or costs gold, and if gold, how much, we are also advising all Network members to avoid splurging the remainder sum of cash, or exceeding the "basic" packages until further "developments" and bugs are worked out.

Many of you may recall when the fishing game came out, how several people purchased expensive poles and still have not recouped the money lost, while newbies with 100 gold poles are now millionares wearing Emerald Masks. eek

Here is the link to VOs post.
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5845458

and here is the link to the Demo
http://www.gaiaonline.com/new_features.php?f=homes

It does seem a bit different...

Oh you forgot the Going Postal Update.

read top list...

Hand held items available in all stores ^_^
(except the jewelry store, which now carries those valentines candies)

Gaia houses have come, Gambino has his tower, and the Admins say "yay" on lightsabers for the battle system, but they will be called something else for copyright purposes, much like the "ZONY" items.

Announce

as you may have noticed, Gaia has just entered another nightmarish transformation which we hope will serve some practical purpose. It is obvious that the forums have been moved around. It may be possible that they were rearranged to match up with hard ware alterations, particularly to deal with load balancers and more importantly (for once) the data transfer points during file deletion.

It has been mentioned that previously, there was no direct way to mass delete the files as they are, as they are actually FTPed or soemthing, to another system for future posterity and records.

As you may be aware, ethernet connects can be very fast, but they DO have their limits, and the processors themselves also have limits. I guess it would be akin to trying to run a marathon while you were also trying to saw off your own legs.

There is a new time searching feature going back days and months, although only the future will tell how practical, useful, or functional this feature will be.

We have had two major transformations like this since I've arrived. The first major change was when they added the "report" buttons to forums.

The second major transformation was the reorganization of forums to coincide with the new homes.

For now, lets talk about some forgotten features, or features that have been added and since lost. crying

When I first got into Gaia, there was, at least briefly, a working version of "search" . This was a wonderful feature for tracking down forums that you only remembered in name. As the lsit of forums steadily increases into the hundreds of thousands, this feature will become more and more needed, and more missed.

Favorites threads: I recall when the big business of this thread feature came out. It was sort of meant to replace the "recent threads" list, and be a personalized "watched" list. However, it tended to get killed one time after the next during upgrades and crashes, and is currently a dormant nonfunctioning button like "search".

Journals: This feature is not nearly as appealing as it used to be, the upcoming upgrades planned with it last year never came. It still looks somewhat spiffy, but im looky to get one reply. (exchangers and artists tend to get more; and it tends to favor females in replies, but other than that, its about the same everywhere).

Housing: housing seems to be a feature that lost its lackluster almost as quickly as it was debugged. The most useful feature of Housing right now is the ability to display vast amounts of wealth in the exchange, which is useful when you cannot equip every item, and trades cannot be trusted. Currently it reminds me of a "storage shed" or "display case" for wealth. We hope the nieghborhoods come out soon. 3nodding

Gaia Updates Again ^_^

we are expeirencing lots of bugginess lately, but many things that didnt work before are noew working, so we are proud of the Admins' sense of responsibility.

The future looks Bright heart