News



Quick links: United Races Forum Vilya Server Forum Vilya Alliance

03/25/11 - Volume 3, Book 3

The new book in the Epic story line is out, and Middle-earth has undergone many changes. See the forum for more details.

Also, the Alt-Codes link on this web site got an update. Now the most common Middle-earth text symbols are listed right here on that page. It’s located under ‘Guides’.

12/28/10 - New forum is now active

The new forum version is now active as of Sunday morning 12/26/10, and linked from this main web site as before. Direct link is here. Since the new version is located at a separate address and essentially a copy in time from the previous forum, the old one will have its topics locked as of today so we don’t double post. Here’s a couple things to expect when logging into the new forum version:

1. You'll need to re-enter your password. It's the same. Remember these are case sensitive.
2. You'll need to re-upload your avatar.
3. The old forum version will continue to be viewable at the old address, however the new version is now the one linked from our main web site. They are indeed separate and we’ll begin using the new one now.

That should be about it. Contact Magnarr if you're having any issues other than those above. We'll have some different styles to choose from eventually, but for now what's up is what's available to us.

If you’re curious about these forum versions, the old one was “phpBB2”, and now we’re upgraded to “phpBB3.0.7PL1”. Yeah I don’t know what that means either, but it looks nice and we don’t have those annoying videos playing anymore at the bottom of the screen.

11/22/10 - Voice Chat Options

Ventrilo is back in the UR. This is very handy for larger groups since it has the ability to separately adjust incoming voice volume levels. Also, a lot of people have started using Skype for fellowships of 5 people or less. It’s great since the voice volumes are all automatically normalized and you don’t have to even think about it.

01/04/09 - General News Update

New screenshots have been posted, many in Dx10. Feel free to send one via the forums if you have one of yourself that you would like to share.

The site runes have been changed to Elvish, following our poll several months ago. It says, “Welcome to the United Races” in Third Age Elvish Tengwar, also known as Feanorian lettering. They were previously written in Norwegion-Germanic Futhark, a slightly more modern form of Eldar Futhark which utilizes sounds over symbolic meaning. Tolkien used the Eldar version as a basis for creating his Dwarvish Runes.

A new map link to the Moria and Eregion areas has been added to the Quicklinks.

08/10/08 - Shard Information

An older link has updated their site on shard information, and has proven to be very useful. The link for Lotro-Rares.com has been added to the Quick Links section of the site.

07/06/08 - General

We’ve posted most of our updates on the forums rather than in the news here. Good to see more people putting it to good use. Welcome to all those who have joined recently, or have returned after a hiatus! A couple people are taking a break, and we all look forward to their return as well.

We have been meeting regularly as a kinship on the first Sunday evening of each month in the main room of the kinship house. 6:00pm PST (9EST)

02/20/08 - Kinship Meeting - Mar.3, 6:00pm PST (9 EST)

We’ll meet in the main room of the kinship house as usual. The agenda is discussed here.

02/20/08 - Community Containers, Policy Change Reverted

We reverted back to our old policy on the kinship containers via the majority opinion on the issue, and they are open again to all members. We’ll bring it up at the upcoming meeting, Mar.3. Until then, here’s a thread for the discussion. As it was before, recipes downstairs, misc and pages in the hall and equipped items upstairs. A thread was started for the developers here to eventually implement a separately locked container to fill the need of both sides of the issue.

02/14/08 - Community Containers, Policy Change

As of today we are implementing a new policy on the kinship containers. The containers are and will remain locked, and only the officers have direct access. This is to create a protected resource for us as a kinship to safely stockpile high end equipment for our members, and all members will be able to request items from the containers either through the forum or in-game through an officer. There is a forum on the policy listed here for all comments, questions and concerns. The new policy is as follows:

1. DEPOSITS - If you want to donate something to the kinship container, it must be either:
   (a) A master-crafted recipe item with critical success (tiers 3-5)
   (b) A single-use recipe item (tiers 3-5)
   (c) Crafting materials

2. WITHDRAWALS - If you would like something out of the containers, all members are welcome to it on a first-come-first-serve basis. Post on the kinship forums what you're looking for, or ask one of the officers to see what's in there for your level/class. Please limit your withdrawals to once per week.

02/05/08 - Recruitment Page

There is a page now for filling in recruits with all the info they need. This will certainly be a relief for those who have been typing this information out each time new recruit has joined us. It’s a link in the Guides section of this site.

02/05/08 - Successful Meeting

Thanks to all who came to the United Races meeting last night; it was very productive. A lot of us showed, and it was exciting to see so many people come and give their input. Of you missed it, here’s a recap:

1. Officer Positions
-- Dalonewolf, Wolfslady, Laquack, Liandra and Calembryl are new officers.

-- Iorlas changed his officer statues to his alt, Corudor

-- Bredryt changed his officer status to his alt, Andagarlas

2. Alts
-- Be sure to update your notes in the social panel (O), so that the rest of us know who your main character is. More direction on doing this here if you need help.

3. New members
-- Orientation - We have many new people, and expect more on the way. When they are invited in, be sure they know about the kinship house, containers, web site and forums. There is a new page for this now here.

-- There willl be a mandatory two-week waiting period from now on for all new recruits before they are moved up to member status.

-- We will continue to bring people into the kinship through the recommendation of our members. If you've enjoyed grouping with someone and they'd like to join us, be sure to let an officer know. We'll use your discretion that the person is trustworthy, kind and easy going. So far it has worked for us very well and we will continue to use this system rather than any application.

4. Kinship House
-- Containers - If you need something, that's why it's there. Plan on leaving something of approximate value in it's place, but definitely use them. Recipes in the lobby, misc in the hall, and equipped items upstairs. Please feel welcome to help yourself to whatever you need to use on your character, and leave items that you feel others can use. Avoid leaving items for use under level 15 please, as well as most looted items. The reason for this is that hand crafted items and quest rewards are much more valuable to any level, and it is better to leave room for them.

-- Upkeep - This place is expensive; 345s per week. If you are making enough coin, please help out. It's anonymous to pay the upkeep directly at the house. It is encouraged to send a mail to Magnarr with smaller amounts of coin to put towards the upkeep. Simply put ‘Kinship House’ in the title, or something similar..

5. Events
-- Check the forums for more info.

6. The VA

This may be a misunderstood outlet, so we'll go over it.
-- There are over 30 kinships working together in the Vilya Alliance now. It’s not just for raiding at level 50. It’s a server-wide LFM system for filling in groups, and a way for smaller kinships to communicate to each other for events. Please take the time to read about the server-wide ‘Unite’ chat channel, it’s guidelines, and help yourself to using it

-- One day soon we will be able to host larger events from within our kinship, and are excited about looking forward to that. We feel that day is not far away.

6. House Access
Should we continue to have our kinship house open to the public? Pros/Cons to be discussed...

-- The house will be left open to all visitors.

01/24/08 - Screenshots

There’s a new page showing screenshots! It’ll be kept simple. Feel free to send one of your character by email to admin@unitedraces.net and it’ll get posted. If you want it anonymous, just say so.

01/24/08 - Music

There’s a new guide section here now for music. There are also a couple of Lotro music file collections available for download for a quick start in playing the .abc files.

01/24/08 - Book 12

Here is the link for the Book 12 Release Notes. There’s a lot; this is one of the biggest releases so far. They are saying it will happen Feb. I’m putting my guess at Feb.4 or 11, depending on the results from the Roheryn test server.

01/07/08 - New members

We have several new people who have recently joined us. Be sure to give them a warm welcome when you see them. As for those of you who are new, don’t be afraid to ask the higher levels for help when you need it, that’s what we’re here for.

01/07/08 - January Events

The initial events for January were very successful with the VA, although a total flop from our kinship. A couple of us stuck with the event in the Shire however, and had a great time. If you have an idea for a United Races kinship event, feel free to post it in the forums and let the officers know. All are welcome.

12/04/07 - Overstock of Recipes

Our kinship containers are overflowing with recipes available to our members, and there are more coming. Please don’t be shy; that’s why they’re there. If something matches your profession, by all means take it and replace it later with another for someone else.

12/04/07 - Alternate Characters

Many of us are running alts. Please update your player notes so we know who you are. This is done through the little symbol next to ‘location’ in the kinship panel. Thanks!

12/04/07 - VilyaAlliance.com

The Vilya Alliance website is now up and running. If you are ever interested in joining some of the events held by this large coalition of kinships, simply visit the site to learn more about it.

11/05/07 - The Villya Alliance

The initial meeting of the kinships was a huge success last Saturday, Nov. 3rd. Over 20 people attended from other kinships on Vilya, almost all of which were leaders and officers. The Vilya Alliance has been created as a collection of kinships working together, and we communicate through the custom chat channel, "Unite". Below are the results/minutes from the initial meeting, according to the agenda:

Agenda:

1. What do we want to see in this chat channel.
--Inter-Kinship LFM (not LFF, this is for completing groups not looking for groups)
--Updates from remote areas, such as Ettenmoors
--Advice is welcome, but should be moved quickly to /tell
--Absolutely no sales advertizing, or recruitment spam

2. Reasonable times to schedule weekly raids.
--Will be posted on Vilya server forum for sign-ups, separate for each raid area

3. Do we want to refer to ourselves as an organization of kinships?
--We are from this day forth known as The Vilya Alliance

4. Is there any reason to utilize a forum other than the Vilya server forum?
--Not at this time

5. When shall we meet again.
--The first Saturday of every month, 5:00pm PST at the Prancing Pony in Bree. Next meeting, Dec.1st

11/03/07 - Kinship Meeting

Thanks to all who attended today’s meeting at the kinship house. Below are the results of the meeting according to the agenda:

Agenda:

1. New members, lost members

-- October was a big month for us. We have lost a few key members for varying reasons, but we have also gained a few new ones; please welcome them. We are obviously in a ‘rebuild’ mode. Vilya is now known as having the third smallest population out of the eleven Lotro Servers, so every kinship is looking for members. If you meet someone who seems intelligent, trustworthy and you enjoy grouping with them, by all means let an officer know and we’ll invite them in.

2. Kinship merges

-- There were rumors started in late September that we may be merging into another kinship, and it went as far as at least one other kinship giving us a formal invitation to do so. It was spearheaded by an officer who has since left our kinship, and the officer of the kinship who sent the invitation has since left the game. I’d rather not comment any more on this subject, and the people that were involved with setting it up are still friends of mine. To settle any questions about merges, let me just say that we have no plans whatsoever in disbanding our kinship. We will stand as the United Races for a very long time; probably years. We did send out an invitation some time ago for other small kinships to merge into us, and although we did receive informal alliances from a few other kinships there are no plans for any kinship merges at this time. One of the recent political movements that we will gain from however, is our hand in the formation of the Vilya Alliance. Please be a part of that; it will prove to be a wonderful tool for inter-kinship grouping, and will help solve part of our population issue on this server.

3. Sharing housing containers

-- There are three containers that members may use for trading with each other. Obviously, please try to leave something of equivalent value when removing an item. To keep them organized, please try to use the following as a rough guide:

Front room container – recipes, pages, etc

Lower hall container – misc

Upper floor container – crafted weapons, armor, etc

4. UnitedRaces.net and forum

-- If you’re reading this, you’ve found it. Please register with our forum.

5. The "Unite" chat channel

-- This has since become the communication source for the Vilya Alliance. Please be a part of it, as it will help with inter-kinship grouping. There are guidelines for its use, so please follow them since you are representing our kinship.

10/30/07 - Thanks to all of you who helped out with the purchase of the kinship house. It is located at:

1 High Road, Bronning, Bree-Land Homesteads

10/30/07 - Several other kinships have shown interest in working with us. We are communicating through the user chat channel, “Unite”. You may read up on how to use the channel here.

10/20/07 - Placed an ad today, inviting other kinships to merge with us. You may read the post here.

10/20/07- Our new site and forums are now up and running! As far as the forums, here’s a couple of tips that I learned the hard way:

If you get stuck during registration with an ‘invalid password’ error, try including a capitol letter in there somewhere.

You can load up an avatar of your own. Be sure it is less than 80x80 pixels, and less than 45k

The activation email for the forum will come from “admin@unitedraces.net”, and can only be sent once. If you don’t receive it for some reason (spam blocker for instance), let me know and I’ll delete the registration so you can do it over.


	[Home] [News] [Forums] [Quick Links] [Guides] [Screenshots] [Vilya Alliance]