The Armistice Steam Sale fundraiser is back, promoting peaceful gameplay in support of children still affected by war today. This year marks 100 years since the armistice that ended the First World War, so War Child has pulled together a bunch of the best-selling games to mark the occasion that are either non-violent or have been modified as part of this year’s Armistice campaign (Dick Wilde & Prison Architect).

Each game that is part of the sale is donating a % of developer proceeds to War Child UK & its US partner Children in Conflict to raise vital funds for children whose lives have been torn apart by war.

ABZ (505 Games) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
Broken Sword 5 (Revolution Games) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 25%
Democracy 3 (Positech) – Donating 100% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 25%
Dick Wilde (PlayStack) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
Machinarium (Amanita Design) – Donating 60% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 60%
Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
Prison Architect (Introversion Software) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%
Scanner Sombre (Introversion Software) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%
RiME (Six Foot) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
The Talos Principle (Devolver Digital) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%
The Room (Fireproof Games) – Donating 100% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%

Things are about to get spookier in Kingdom: New Lands as Halloween descends upon us. In the spirit of trick or treat, you might notice an evil grin on the moon during night time and haunted mansions in the far distance across the islands of Kingdom. Even the greedy creatures are dressed up in pumpkin masks, but they won’t be bribed with candy — they want your coins and crown.

For Halloween, you’re able to find a spooky horse wandering about. What does this cursed steed offer besides spreading horror to your loyal subjects? Kingdom has always been about exploration, discovery, and survival, so I don’t want to reveal all details.

Part of Kingdom’s experience is to figure out how you build up your Kingdom and manage it. As you expand and explore you understand how the world works and can be ruled effectively. In this journey, you’ll get to see different seasons and environment that evoke emotions of tranquillity and melancholy along the frantic nights when the greedy creatures appear.

I hope you’ll enjoy Halloween in Kingdom: New Lands. If you survive the horrors (and sugar rush after trick and treating), we’ll have more news on the sequel Kingdom Two Crowns in November. Besides new mounts like the mighty griffon, a brand-new campaign mode and local or online drop-in/drop-out co-op, we have still have a couple of surprises up our sleeves…

A couple of job listings have appeared on Nintendo’s Japanese website, revealing that the gaming development giant is looking for staff to help work on a new 3D The Legend of Zelda title.

At the time of writing, two job listings have been posted online – one for a 3D computer graphics designer, and one for a level designer. As well as needing to be able to communicate in Japanese (the jobs are based at Nintendo’s Kyoto headquarters), the listings show that staff will need to work on terrain design for dungeons, level design, concept art, world visualisation, game events, enemy planning, and more.

If you’re nosey like us, you might also be interested to know that the hiring process consists of interviews, portfolios, and exams, and each applicant can earn between 3.8 to 8.1 million yen a year depending on experience (which equates to roughly £25,000 / $33,000 – £54,000 / $71,000 without thinking about differences in cost of living).

Of course, we’ve known that a new Zelda game has been in the works for some time, and it would be safe to assume that future titles for the series are likely being thought about at all times. With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild going on to be such a raging success last year, it would also be safe to assume that a new game could follow suit with a similar design, but the series has often tended to shift direction regardless of its current popularity so it would be impossible to know for sure.

What would you like to see from the next Legend of Zelda game? A Breath of the Wild 2, or something completely different? Let us know down below.

The Armistice Steam Sale fundraiser is back, promoting peaceful gameplay in support of children still affected by war today. This year marks 100 years since the armistice that ended the First World War, so War Child has pulled together a bunch of the best-selling games to mark the occasion that are either non-violent or have been modified as part of this year’s Armistice campaign (Dick Wilde & Prison Architect).

Each game that is part of the sale is donating a % of developer proceeds to War Child UK & its US partner Children in Conflict to raise vital funds for children whose lives have been torn apart by war.

ABZ (505 Games) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
Broken Sword 5 (Revolution Games) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 25%
Democracy 3 (Positech) – Donating 100% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 25%
Dick Wilde (PlayStack) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
Machinarium (Amanita Design) – Donating 60% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 60%
Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
Prison Architect (Introversion Software) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%
Scanner Sombre (Introversion Software) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%
RiME (Six Foot) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 50%
The Talos Principle (Devolver Digital) – Donating 50% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%
The Room (Fireproof Games) – Donating 100% of developer proceeds / Discounted by 75%

This week at Bungie, we’re looking toward the future.

Festival of the Lost has come and gone. Guardians spent three weeks eliminating Nightmares in the Haunted forest. All that remains is the investigation into the murder of Master Ives. Many of you are still working toward some of your Forsaken goals, earning titles and various Triumphs. Even with much to do in game, we’re looking to spice things up a little. 

First up, we’re dusting off the Twitch studio. We’ve been hearing some feedback that you want to get to know our team a little better, and hear some stories from the development floor.

Bungie Bounty: Gambit

Platform: Xbox One

Monday, November 12, 2018

Bungie Last Wish Raid-Along

Monday, November 19, 2018

Each stream will showcase gameplay with commentary from the creators of Destiny 2. Following our streams, we have some changes coming up to address feedback we’ve collected since Forsaken was released. Read on for more!

Incoming Improvements

As you continue to fight the Scorn and defend the Dreaming City, we’re collecting player feedback and looking at ways to improve your quality of life. We have a few deployments in development and wanted to give you a preview of what’s on the way. Everything below is subject to changes on the development floor. If issues are found or bugs arise, items may be delayed. In any case, we’ll keep you updated on the status until this work is translated into patch notes.

Performance

Engineer Ben Thompson: We have been paying close attention to reports of long load times on console and are working on improvements to reduce these load times. Let’s break down three distinct performance issues that we are looking into (each with different contributing factors):

Gambit Free Trial and Double Infamy Weekend

Recently, Destiny 2 became free to all players on PC through November 18. To celebrate our new players and introduce them to the Drifter, we’ll be hosting another Gambit Free Trial weekend.

Gambit Free Trial

Starts: 9 AM 11/9/2018

Ends: 9 AM 11/11/2018

If you own Forsaken, Double Infamy will also be available in the Gambit playlist. As it’s a full curse week, expect to see some Ascendant Primeval Servitors during your time on the field.

Seasonal To-Do: 4th Edition

We are rapidly approaching the end of Season 4, which is currently set for November 27, 2018. You have a limited number of weeks remaining to complete the following objectives:

Iron Banner

Lord Saladin returns next week for the final Iron Banner of Season 4. While Iron Banner weapons introduced with the release of Forsaken will continue to be available, this will be your final chance to earn Season 4 Iron Banner armor.

Iron Banner

Start: 9 AM 11/13/2018

End: 9 AM 11/20/2018

Additionally, this will be the final chance to earn any Iron Banner Triumphs associated with Season 4.

Triumphs

Some Triumphs have seasonal requirements. While these Triumphs do not have a score associated with them, players may wish to complete them prior to November 27.

Pinnacle Crucible Weapons

While questlines for Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten are available year-round, Crucible ranks will reset at the end of Season 4. Each quest contains a quest step to reach a rank milestone, and progress may be lost for these specific steps if you do not reach the requirements prior to the season ending. Progress for alternate quest steps will not be reset. If you’re in the middle of getting precision kills or completing Rumble matches, you will not lose any progress in those steps.

If you’re within arm’s reach of Fabled or Legend, this is your time to make the final push. If you do not reach the rank you’re aiming for by November 27, you will be reset to Guardian and have to climb the ladder once more. If you reach the rank and complete the associated quest step before season’s end, you’re all set.

Quick shout out to one of our community artists, Aviixe, for their amazing creation. This piece perfectly captures the feeling of earning Luna’s Howl!

P.S.R.

On a daily basis, team members of Destiny Player Support meet to discuss the issues that you’re encountering in game. Ranging from error codes to Collections, they’ve got their finger on the pulse of this community.

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.0.5.1

Earlier this week, we conducted maintenance to deploy Hotfix 2.0.5.1 to players. This hotfix was in direct response to an emergent issue that prevented some players from receiving the Lost Cryptarch quest from Amanda Holliday after it became available.

While we believe all cases of this issue have been resolved, players who continue to encounter this issue should let us know by reporting to the #Help forum.

Refer-a-Friend

With the launch of the Refer-a-Friend promotion, Destiny Player Support has observed a number of reports from players who are receiving a message indicating that they are ineligible to participate in Refer-a-Friend. After investigating reports of this issue, we have determined that a significant majority of these players do not own Destiny 2: Forsaken, and are accessing Destiny 2: Forsaken content through platform license-sharing features.

Please note that in order to participate in Refer-a-Friend, both linked players must own full Destiny 2: Forsaken licenses on their participating accounts.

Destiny 2: Forsaken Known Issues

In addition to the items listed above, Destiny Player Support is tracking the latest issues reported by players on the #Help forum. Provided below is a brief overview of the latest known issues in Destiny 2: Forsaken.

• Hecuba-S Sparrow: We are investigating an issue where players who do not own the Annual Pass cannot reclaim the Hecuba-S Sparrow from Collections.
• Corrupted Strike Respawns: We are investigating an issue where players may spawn outside the boss arena in the Corrupted strike and immediately die because they spawn inside of a kill volume.
• Hawthorne’s Weekly Raid Bounty: We are investigating an issue where Hawthorne’s weekly raid bounty shows up for only 24 hours past the weekly reset. If not acquired by 9 AM PST (1700 UTC) the next day, players won’t be able to pick a new raid bounty until the next weekly reset.
• Moving Bank in Gambit Matches: We are investigating issues where the bank may drift/rotate out of place during Gambit matches, causing players to be unable to deposit motes.
• Gwisin Vest Exotic: We are investigating an issue where the perk Roving Assassin on Gwisin Vest may not always activate properly.
• Fastidious Miser and Ascendant Chests: We are investigating issues with the Fastidious Miser Triumph not unlocking when players find all of the Ascendant Chests. Players may need to find the Ascendant Chests a second time to unlock this Triumph.
• Mint Condition: We are investigating an issue where the Mint Condition Triumph doesn’t unlock for players who don’t let the Generator Core in the Dreaming City go below 100% in the public event.
• Riddle Me This: We are investigating an issue where the Riddle Me This Triumph is not unlocking for some players who open all of its corresponding chests in the Dreaming City.
• Chinese UI Issues: We are investigating an issue where players using the Traditional Chinese language are experiencing long UI load times in Destiny 2. We are pursuing a fix targeted for early December.

How Do You Pronounce Meme?

Is it meme or meme? Gif or gif? However you say it, this week’s winner has gifted us with yet another awesome movie. Their editing skills are on point, and we hope you enjoy their creation as much as we did.

Movie of the Week: Don’t Sleep on It

Honorable Mention: Titan Mentality

Want to see your video here? Submit your video to the Creations page. If you win, we will send you a special emblem to show off to your friends. 

We’re excited for the future of Destiny 2. Season of the Forge is coming up quick, and we have more than enough to keep ourselves busy until then. We’ll be reminding you throughout the month, Season 4 ends on November 27, 2018. Claim your Triumphs and earn your gear before time’s up!

Cheers,

Dmg04

I’ve been a writer for more than 20 years. I’ve written thousands of articles and how-tos on various technical topics and have penned more than 40 works of fiction. So, the written word is not only important to me, it’s familiar to the point of being second nature. And through those two decades (and counting) I’ve done nearly all my work on the Linux platform. I must confess, during those early years it wasn’t always easy. Formats didn’t always mesh with what an editor required and, in some cases, the open source platform simply didn’t have the necessary tools required to get the job done.

That was then, this is now.

A perfect storm of Linux evolution and web-based tools have made it such that any writer can get the job done (and done well) on Linux. But what tools will you need? You might be surprised to find out that, in some instances, the job cannot be efficiently done with 100% open source tools. Even with that caveat, the job can be done. Let’s take a look at the tools I’ve been using as both a tech writer and author of fiction. I’m going to outline this by way of my writing process for both nonfiction and fiction (as the process is different and requires specific tools).

A word of warning to seriously hard-core Linux users. A long time ago, I gave up on using tools like LaTeX and DocBook for my writing. Why? Because, for me, the focus must be on the content, not the process. When you’re facing deadlines, efficiency must take precedent.

Nonfiction

We’ll start with nonfiction, as that process is the simpler of the two. For writing technical how-tos, I collaborate with different editors and, in some cases, have to copy/paste content into a CMS. But like with my fiction, the process always starts with Google Drive. This is the point at which many open source purists will check out. Fear not, you can always opt to either keep all of your files locally, or use a more open-friendly cloud service (such as Zoho or nextCloud).

Why start on the cloud? Over the years, I’ve found I need to be able to access that content from anywhere at any time. The simplest solution was to migrate the cloud. I’ve also become paranoid about losing work. To that end, I make use of a tool like Insync to keep my Google Drive in sync with my desktop. With that desktop sync in place, I know there’s always a backup of my work, in case something should go awry with Google Drive.

For those clients with whom I must enter content into a Content Management System (CMS), the process ends there. I can copy/paste directly from a Google Doc into the CMS and be done with it. Of course, with technical content, there are always screenshots involved. For that, I use Gimp, which makes taking screenshots simple:

1. Open Gimp.

2. Click File > Create > Screenshot.

3. Select from a single window, the entire screen, or a region to grab (Figure 1).

4. Click Snap.

The majority of my clients tend to prefer I work with Google Docs, because I can share folders so that they have reliable access to the content. There are a few clients I have that do not work with Google Docs, and so I must download the files into a format that can be used. What I do for this is download in .odt format, open the document in LibreOffice (Figure 2), format as needed, save in a format required by the client, and send the document on.

And that, is the end of the line for nonfiction.

Fiction

This is where it gets a bit more complicated. The beginning steps are the same, as I always write every first draft of a novel in Google Docs. Once that is complete, I then download the file to my Linux desktop, open the file in LibreOffice, format as necessary, and then save as a file type supported by my editor (unfortunately, that means .docx).

The next step in the process gets a bit dicey. My editor prefers to use comments over track changes (as it makes it easier for both of us to read the document as we make changes). Because of this, a 60k word doc can include hundreds upon hundreds of comments, which slows LibreOffice to a useless crawl. Once upon a time, you could up the memory used for documents, but as of LibreOffice 6, that is no longer possible. This means any larger, novel-length, document with numerous comments will become unusable. Because of that, I’ve had to take drastic measures and use WPS Office (Figure 3). Although this isn’t an open source solution, WPS Office does a fine job with numerous comments in a document, so there’s no need to deal with the frustration that is LibreOffice (when working with these large files with hundreds of comments).

Once my editor and I finish up the edits for the book (and all comments have been removed), I can then open the file in LibreOffice for final formatting. When the formatting is complete, I save the file in .html format and then open the file in Calibre for exporting the file to .mobi and .epub formats.

Calibre is a must-have for anyone looking to publish on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, or other platforms. One thing Calibre does better than other, similar, solutions is enable you to directly edit the .epub files (Figure 4). For the likes of Smashword, this is an absolute necessity (as the export process will add elements not accepted on the Smashwords conversion tool).

After the writing process is over (or sometimes while waiting for an editor to complete a pass), I’ll start working on the cover for the book. That task is handled completely in Gimp (Figure 5).

And that finishes up the process of creating a work of fiction on the Linux platform. Because of the length of the documents, and how some editors work, it can get a bit more complicated than the process of creating nonfiction, but it’s far from challenging. In fact, creating fiction on Linux is just as simple (and more reliable) than other platforms.

HTH

I hope this helps aspiring writers to have the confidence to write on the Linux platform. There are plenty of other tools available to use, but the ones I have listed here have served me quite well over the years. And although I do make use of a couple of proprietary tools, as long as they keep working well on Linux, I’m okay with that.

Learn more about Linux in the Introduction to Open Source Development, Git, and Linux (LFD201) training course from The Linux Foundation, and sign up now to start your open source journey.