Lúnasa (August) 2013


Cead Mile Failte!

Welcome to another Gaiscioch Ceannard Notes! This month we've got quite a bit to talk about. Within the family PAX Prime is officially on our doorstep at the end of this month, our DoubleUP Charity Event enters its second month, we're holding our monthly meetings and a new Livestream 101 event. In Guild Wars 2 we've had some massive changes, improvements, and expansion. I know this one will likely be long but do your best to get through it. There's a lot of important information contained within. So lets get started with our Gaiscioch Family News.

Gaiscioch News

Join us on Sunday Sept 1st @ 8PM For
The Gaiscioch Family 12th Year Party @ Fado Irish Pub

Members from far and wide will travel to Seattle, WA to attend the 12th Birthday Party and PAX Prime. For those who were lucky enough to score tickets to the event, you’re in store for a wicked good year of gaming. The floor this year is massive, and hundreds of games will be shown. With PS4 and XBOX One both having major demos you'll likely see some of the new tech coming to the gaming world. Also in attendance will be ZeniMax Online showing-casing  Elder Scrolls Online, Square Enix previewing Final Fantasy XIV, and Carbine presenting WildStar.

If you didn't get tickets don't worry there's still a ton of fun to be had. On Saturday from 1-10PM ArenaNet is holding an international sPvP tournament and networking event. I will also be on the lookout for any other outside events happening around PAX. If you want to stay updated keep an eye on our forums.

For information about our 12 Year Party visit:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/family_news/post_62121.html

DoubleUp Charity Event Continues
Give a Child a Friend in Their Hour of Need

The Gaiscioch continues their support to Project Night Night and Candlelighters for Children with Cancer this month awarding players contribution points for supporting these charities in the form of Stuffed Animal Donations. At this point we've shipped over 100 stuffed animals to these charities but we have a long way to go to meet our goal. Please help me in making a positive impact in these childrens lives. For more information please visit:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/charity/

Monthly Meetings
August Gaiscioch Family Pubcast

Join us on August 10th at 5PM Pacific for the Gaiscioch Family Summit PubCast and participate in a few of our roundtable discussions. This month we'll be opening the floor to discuss the Great Tyrian Adventure Season 2, Elder Scrolls Online, and the new changes within the Guild Wars 2 side of our family. Join us to participate in this event.

August Livestream Event
The Gaiscioch Family Overview

Join us at 12PM for the Gaiscioch Family Overview Livestream as I introduce you to how the family began, what our focus is, and how we are structured. This event will give you the base information about the family as a whole. Tune in to the livesteam on our Twitch.tv page.

Website Improvements
"OMG Fog Changed Things!"

In my eternal quest to make things more efficient and streamline processes, (as well as make people crazy!) I've gone ahead and made some small improvements to the website.

  1. My Discussions: You can now go to the Tavern and choose which forums show up under "My Discussions" on the homepage. Thus making your landing page more customized to what interests you. In addition I've added tabs to the Recent Discussion section of the homepage to browse your discussions, Gaiscioch & Tuatha Discussions, and Saighdear Discussions.

  2. Still Playing?: The website will now ask you if you're still playing a Saighdear game after 45 days. If after another 45 days you have not clicked "Yes" or "No" it will automatically remove you from the Saighdear roster. This should allow us to get more realistic numbers on who is actively playing each game.

  3. Mobile Site: We are actively working on the Mobile Site so that people can begin using tablets and phones to track their participation and leadership in events as well as browse their "My Discussion" forums. There is no reliable ETA yet on when it will be ready but it is in progress, and there are some screenshots on our forums of it. This is not a mobile app (yet) and will be accessible from any web browser.

Guild Wars 2 News

Ok this month has been a big one in Guild Wars 2 for Gaiscioch. Recently I took another trip to Seattle, WA to visit with the ArenaNet crew and learned of some cool things on the horizon but also learned that the Alliance system we've been waiting for still has no ETA and we don't even know if it's being worked on at all. At this point we're going to assume it isn't going to make it's way into game like we expected, and start taking measures to ensure the best quality of life in the family within Guild Wars 2. The communication barriers have been driving a nail into our family for a long time. Having too many members to fit into 1 room together has been quite a hinderance, and has just added layers of confusion to the whole thing.

So this month we took measures to bring everyone into Gaiscioch na Rall on a sliding 7-Day website afk policy. We will be adjusting the actual remove time, to try to find where we need it to maintain 490 people in Gaiscioch na Rall at all times. If that’s 7 days then it will be 7 days, if it's 30 days we'll slide it out to 30 days. We'll adjust it as needed, but officially being active on the website every week will ensure that you will never get removed from Gaiscioch na Rall. Over a 45 day period we still have over 800 active members so to fit into a 500 person limited room we will need to adjust the AFK flagging script on our site to maximize our numbers.

Again I can not say this enough: "Getting moved to the inactive roster in no way affects your membership in the Gaiscioch Family." Simply log back into the site and you'll get an invite in a few hours.

So now that we're all in Rall what about the other rooms?

I have updated our welcome to Guild Wars 2 page to best outline the new structure. Please give it a read at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_news/post_57806.html

Introducing [SORC]
SOR Community Events Launches

A huge thank you to ArenaNet for hearing my pitch and brute force changing the name of our former "Gaiscioch" room to SOR Community Events so that we could incorporate Guild Missions into our public community events.

This new room of our house is branded in a way that it does not directly reflect on our name allowing us to open the doors to the community and allow everyone to join it temporarily during events. In addition the name speaks of community not forcing someone to be a part of Gaiscioch to participate. This keeps our events inclusive and available to the server community.

Each event, our event hosts will invite participants to SORC and after their events they will remove everyone once again thus allowing the roster 470+ slots available for every event. This is a temporary invite guild only and is not something you can stay in longer than the duration of the event.

Housekeeping!
Time to Optimize, Organize, and Evolve

With the potential of Alliances nowhere to be seen we've begun making changes to allow us better communication and quality of life. We were thinking of just moving everyone into Rall and making the other 2 base rooms empty but after evaluation we still have more people active over a 45 day period that won't be able to fit in Rall. Until the Rall timer matches the 45 day timer we will keep these rooms open. In addition we wanted to make use of the vaults in those 2 other rooms.

Please note that anything you put into the vault will not be rewarded contribution. You put it there to help your fellow family members. Exotics and select other goods can still be sent to Foghladha.2506 for contribution credit as donations but please be sure to include your ArenaNet.ID when sending in donations.

So here's how we currently have the vaults set up.

Gaiscioch & Gaiscioch na Morrigan

  • Guild Stash - Consumables for Stat Boosts, and Special Items

  • Treasure Trove - Weapons (Green Quality or Higher Only Please)

  • Deep Cave - Armor (Green Quality or Higher Only Please)

All members will have access to their Base Room's Vault. Please only take what you need and will use. Do not use the banks to store all the crap you don't want. We have limited space and If you don't think anyone will use it please just trading post or vendor it. Yes I'm talking to you +10% Quaggan Damage Food!

Gaiscioch na Rall (WvW & Activities Room)

  • Guild Stash - Siege Weapon Donations for Commanders, Elder Wood, Mithril Ore

  • Treasure Trove - Off the Books (No Credit) Unused Crafting Materials, Recipes, Dye

  • Deep Cave - Runes, Sigils, Seals, and Medallions

Only Commanders will have access to the Guild Stash in Gaiscioch na Rall. Everyone will have access to the other 2 sections.

Public Community Events
Great Tyrian Adventure Season 2 Begins September 3rd 2013

We're pleased to announce a new structure to our Great Tyrian Adventure. In season 2 the Adventure continues in the form of 5 week "chapters". In the Great Tyrian Adventure tradition, each week, we'll be awarding prizes using our raffle system. But winning the raffle isn't the only way participants will score rewards. This season we'll be focusing the adventure around the guild mission system.

Each participant will earn 2 gold (50s each mission), 6 commendations, and a minimum of 6 rare items just by completing the weekly bounty, rush, challenge,  and puzzle. Before the event we will be inviting anyone who shows up to SOR Community Events [SORC] and empty the roster at the end of the event.

The new season of the Great Tyrian Adventure is set to launch September 3rd, 2013. Join us at [Waypoint] to join in this adventure. We will begin and hold the raffle at [Waypoint] each week. Be sure to register today to SanctumofRall.com using the access code: 5012 to join in the fun.

Learn more at:
http://www.sanctumofrall.com/

This Month's Updates
Guild Wars 2 Continues the Two Patch Per Month Goal

This month we saw some new content added to Guild Wars 2.

July 9th, 2013:
Bazaar of the Four Winds

The Bazaar of the Four Winds is gathering— merchants are converging from all corners of Tyria to sell their wares. But this time it’s not just shady characters and risky trades; this year, the mystical, flying Zephyr Sanctum has landed, bringing their magical crystals and amazing movement skills to savvy traders and daring adventurers alike! What a joy it will be to experience the thrill of the trade—and the race. Let’s go!

Features:

  • New PvP Map: Skyhammer

  • Account Achievement Reward System

  • New and Improved Achievement Panel UI

  • World vs. World Build and Repair Mastery

Learn more at:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/july-09-2013/

Read the Patch Notes:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/july-9-content-release-notes/

July 23rd, 2013:
Cutthroat Politics

An assassination has created a vacancy on the Captain’s Council of Lion’s Arch. Two candidates —war hero Ellen Kiel and prominent merchant Evon Gnashblade —both want to occupy that empty seat, but they can’t do it without your support!

To prove they have what it takes to sit on the powerful ruling council, Kiel and Gnashblade will compete to secure a lucrative trade agreement with the merchants of the Zephyr Sanctum.

Features:

  • New World vs. World Ability Line – Catapult Mastery

  • Lots of Class Balancing

Learn more at:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/july-23-2013/

Read the Patch Notes:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/july-23-content-release-notes/

Coming August 6th, 2013
Queen's Jubilee

A celebration of ten years of Queen Jennah’s rule is about to kick off in Divinity’s Reach! The queen has commissioned a new gladiatorial arena for the occasion—the Crown Pavilion—as a shining symbol of her people’s endurance.

Take a hot air balloon ride with dignitaries from across Tyria to the capital of the Krytan nation, and be there for the opening ceremony. Join in the festivities and compete in ceremonial combat in Her Majesty’s honor!

 Features:

  • Account Wallet for Currency

  • PvP Solo Queue

  • Bonus Rewards for Dungeons

  • Champion Loot Updates

  • Mini-Game Rotation System

  • Improved Effects Level of Detail System

  • World vs. World Supply Mastery

Learn more at:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/august-06-2013/

 

Saighdear News

Elder Scrolls Online

The past month has been a quiet one. Not too much talked about that we don't already know. With PAX coming up this month most likely they’re getting ready to make a big reveal. Cross your fingers for some more information or better yet VIDEO! regarding either Raiding or Alliance vs Alliance warfare. There is still a lot hanging in balance when it comes to the potential of launching into Elder Scrolls Online as a full chapter. We're keeping an ear to the pavement and keeping it on close watch. Once we know more I'll be happy to share it with you all.

Final Fantasy XIV Launches 8/27

Many of our family will be venturing into the Final Fantasy XIV on the Excalibur server under the guild name Echoes. There has been a lot of excitement building up about this title, and even though it's not a Saighdear, we feel this is a very noteworthy launch as it is close to heart for  many of our family. If you would like to get involved, Connor and Hex are organizing Echoes and welcome your input. You can read about it, and contribute at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/ffxiv_discussion/

Wildstar Beta

Several months ago, ArenaNet put us in contact with Carbine asking if we would be willing to help test Wildstar in the coming months. Over the past few months we have built a relationship between Gaiscioch and Carbine, and recently we sent our first wave of testers into the game to assist with the development of this title. I'm not sure how many more will get in, but if you're interested in helping "test", not play before you buy, please feel free to send me a message with your full legal name and email address, as well as a email address linked to a Google account and I will see what I can do to get you involved.

Neverwinter

I know many have came and left within Neverwinter and it may be a bit late, but if you’re Gaiscioch, and played Neverwinter, there is something you've got to check out before you call it a day. I have officially completed the Four Relics of Eire and have all 4 parts online now. You can complete the final part solo however it is advised to bring a friend. The final part includes an all out siege and features many characters you know and love. The four relics was designed to tell you a bit about the lore behind the Gaiscioch and give you some insight to who people like Anu, Nuada, Dagda, Lug, and Ogham were. It also is a tribute to all of you who have stood by me over the years. You will find Gaiscioch member cameo's all throughout. I tried to include as many of our Neverwinter players as I could as you were most likely to see it. Learn more at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/neverwinter_discussion/post_58254.html

In Closing

This next month is going to be crazy. PAX should bring us a wealth of new information and exciting things to discuss. I hope that those who are traveling to Seattle, WA for PAX Prime and the Gaiscioch party travel safely and I look forward to meeting you all. For those continuing your adventures in Guild Wars 2, Rift, Neverwinter, Final Fantasy XIV, Wildstar I hope that you all make memorable moments in your adventures this month. I'll see you at this month’s livestream and pubcast!

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh