WRTL Newsletter #6 - December 2014

Last newsletter I talked about how things were pretty dead here. This month I am happy to say that that is no longer the case! We have had a wonderful month that has seen numerous members stop back in, or even become active again, after we hadn't seen them in months, or even years. We've also seen a huge spike in track releases after only one single track was released in November. Let's see if we can keep this streak of activity going in the coming months!

December 2014

Site News

• The Line Rider Video Commentary Marathon was a smashing success, and probably played a big part in the recent spike in site activity. It took place on December 27th, hosted by yours truly, with @Dapianokid, @Chuggers/Sam Storm, @ImJOSHH/OptigonSolace, @Opal Rider, and @Rafael (who was added partway through the marathon) We saw legends and old-timers like @LineRiderGjert, @Hedgehogs4Me, and @Ktk drop in to watch (as well as nearly all the active members currently on the site) and peaked at around 25-30 viewers. The whole things ended up being 18 hours of almost consecutive streaming and we finally finished at about 3AM, haha. If you missed it, you can watch the entire marathon here!
  
• A WeRideTheLines Facebook Group has been created! If you do the facebook thing, you should join our group! It's pretty cool to see all of our actual names and lives and faces, and there are a number of people in the group who haven't been active on the forum for years. It's also a great way to contact people if they are MIA from this place.
  
• Congratulations to @Opal Rider, our newest Moderator! He's been a great member (and Elite) here for several years, and was a mod over at EliteLineRider for quite a while. I'm very happy to have him on our staff team.
  
• Because of the success of the marathon, I am starting a new Sunday Squirrel Broadcast series, in the same vein as SledCast. The idea is to stream for a couple hours every Sunday afternoon/evening and do a variety of different things and make it more entertaining than a random stream. Our first episode was an in-depth interview with @GhostY which I highly recommend watching! (You can find it in the thread or on IRTLTube) Feel free to tune in for future episodes (or co-host with me, if you like!)
  
• There was some heated discussion about whether diagonal kramuals were possible (I think we decided that they weren't but I am not sure haha)
  
• We also now have a WeRideTheLines Spotify Playlist! This playlist is public so anyone is free to add songs to it. The songs on the playlist are all songs used for well-known line rider tracks. Thanks to @mhenr18 for the idea.
  
• pure5152 did a 1-for-1 deal to get people to release more tracks, and it worked!
  
• You may have noticed that the portal and the navigation bar have been reworked. The main feature is a new "Play Line Rider" link at the top of the site that will bring you to a recent version of kevans's 3.4.x right in your browser. You may also right click and download Line Rider from there so it can serve as a nice quick reference if you are on a computer that doesn't already have line rider downloaded.
  
• I discovered a number of administrator options on the root admin account, and so a number of housekeeping items that should have been done years ago are now done. Also, if you are good at JavaScript, feel free to help me make the site chat better

Track Releases

• Oxygen by The WeRideTheLines Community Collaboration - The elites' former epic battle 3 track, finally finished as a WCC collaboration. It's a big 2.5 minute music syncing omnitrack that is definitely worth a watch (also GhostY drew an amazing monument in 4 hours)
  
• Type S by @pure5152 - A new release from pure (woooo!) with a twist halfway through that will probably make you giddy. I don't want to spoil it. Pure also released Pebbles, a short track in his signature style.
  
• There is So Much by @gaoyubao - A totally ingenious and totally fun minitrack by gaoyubao. Guaranteed unlike anything you've ever seen, as are all of gao's tracks. Watch it.
  
• The 8th Wonder by @Chuggers - A quirker's highspeed manual fantasy that is also #shotsfired in track form. Chuggers steps outside his comfort zone and the result is pretty awesome.
  
• Photon by @Dapianokid - Dapianokid's latest and greatest track, with lots of gravity chains and some granuals. A new quirker is emerging! Pay attention!
  
• Maniac by @Summoning - a funky and fun alt quirk by Summoning
  
• Battle Track by @Getthim - Getthim's first scenery release, a fun track with a variety of scenery styles.
  
• Chair by Orthuss - A float-y track by Orthuss with two sections
  
• Winter Soldier by @.Iso - a smooth manuquirk by .Iso
  
• A Sinuous Sculpture by @IGLima (and Bing?) - A fun little scened short that IGLima dug out of the archives to release.
  
• Year's End by @Getthim and @Miniboyns - a manuquirk that they are planning to scene in 2015
  
• not a quirk and flatquirk by @mmtunligit12 - a couple new tracks from a new guy

Engaged Riding

• In one of the most exciting, odd, and fascinating battles in quite some time, the Manual Battle between @Chuggers and @Opal Rider ended with Opal as the victor (much to his surprise), despite an enormous effort from Chugs.
  
• The Beta Decline Contest has been voted on, and I guess I won? YEAH GO ME SCREW ALL YOU H8ERS
  
• The Synchronized Battle Royale deadline has been extended (again) to February (or possibly indefinitely). @shotoku, @Dapianokid, and @Getthim have released their tracks, but @.Iso, @RyderLR, @Rafael, and myself are all still working.
  
• The Tales of Twenty and the Experiment Collab are still going on - as casual no-standards projects that anyone can make a part in, and now we have a new (similar) project started by @HG42, the 200 Line Collab (10 line-parts, 20 parts)
  
• In the WCC scenery world, Silent Flame has finally been finished (everyone give three cheers for Opal! I'm editing it as soon as I finish typing this), and Clarifaction is moving toward completion once again (@LineBenji and @Commandercoke are both working on it separately), but we still could certainly use some help with the Forest Scenery project and the community scenery project Phunky. If you like to scene, come by and help us out!
  
• Now that Oxygen is released, let us divert our full attention to the other big music syncing track in the works, Blackheart. We've made significant progress recently and it's very exciting (we're almost halfway!) but the second half of the track is going to pick up in skill level significantly so we will need to pull out some of the big guns. That means you should come help!
  
• @GhostY and myself did not even start working on Evolution of Line Rider Scened this month because, as you can see, lots of exciting stuff happened, but we do plan on working on it soon and we are still accepting volunteers to help out!

Version Development

• Kevansevans continues to add more features to 3.4.X - additions this month include single-click dots, live hit test, and fast forward speed adjustment!
  
• LineOnline appears to be idle for the moment. The source is public on github so if you would like to go help out Conundrumer, please do.

Upcoming Stuff!

• Silent fucking Flame Scened - video release in a matter of days!
  
• Sunday Squirrel Broadcasts! Every sunday! This sunday will be a scenery party. We're gonnna draw green lines and talk about scenery and it's gonna be great.
  
• LineBenji and Commandercoke are both working on the Clarifaction CSP monument (separately) so one of them will finish eventually I assume
  
• Looks like there will be more Battle Royale tracks coming out soon!
  
• The ThornClan track is done, just waiting for the video release!
  
• A little bird told me that shotoku is practically finished with Welcome to Metropolis Scened so I would expect that release this month!
  
• Conundrumer finished a track and I have heard he is writing music to sync with it
  
• MiniBoyns is working on a huge scenery track (40k?!)
  
• kevans is making a massive thing
  
• Helios is making an epic thing
  
• Chuggers continues to work on far too many things at once lol
  
• Dapianokid is making some awesome tracks and bold claims
  
• shotoku is making a thing!
  
• Summoning is making some more stuff
  
• theacp is workin' on some stuff
  
• a little bird also told me GhostY is making a cool thing
  
• If you have something you want to add to this list in next month’s newsletter, PM me!

rabid squirrell wrote:Year's End by @Getthim and @Miniboyns - a manuquirk that they are apllning to scene in 2015

apllning or planning?

fixed

everytime I do this I wonder if people just read the bit that talks about them to see if anything's wrong, and then don't bother to read the rest

i've read all of it but only found that mistake

rabid squirrel wrote:despite an enormous effort from Chugs.

8th wonder took like a <week to make

There were other mistakes, Getthim ;P
I LOVE these newsletters GhostY makes monument in <4 hours but nothing about dap making 15 seconds of XY in <36 hours ;p (I keed, don't add it. GhostY is amazeballs)

Chuggers you gotta focus mannn

Chuggers wrote:

rabid squirrel wrote:despite an enormous effort from Chugs.

8th wonder took like a <week to make

I saw you stressin

rabid squirrel wrote:

Chuggers wrote:

rabid squirrel wrote:despite an enormous effort from Chugs.

8th wonder took like a <week to make

I saw you stressin

deadlines can suck my wee