Here’s a quick screen of introductory dialogue for this upcoming mission.

When I chose the art references and wrote the description for Jungle Shorts, based these on khaki hiking shorts, with cargo pockets, like something one might wear on safari, for Elysian scientists gathering specimens, for explorers in the Nesoi Makaron jungles, and even for relaxing on the beach.  The women’s shorts would have the same practical look, the same cargo-pockets, but I also wanted the ladies’ version to to be a bit shorter than the fellows’ and a bit more fitted — just because our Islanders are scientists, hunters and explorers doesn’t mean clothes have to be shapeless!

Our talented art team did encounter some issues with the meshes for these, which is why the lady version ended up without the cargo pockets. The final art for the lady shorts are still a sturdy fabric, with a default neutral color, something we all felt the Elysian scientists would enjoy.

I’m pleased with my contributions on the design of the Jungle Shirts, Island Shirt, and Elysian’s Tropical Top. Personally, when I play MMOs, I’m a woman playing a female avatar. I want my character to be pretty, I like skirts and pretty shoes, and many hair options, but I don’t want to fight dragons in a battle bikini and stilettos. I know plenty of players of both genders, who enjoy playing in pure fantasy outfits, and I understand the pure character customization and the implied escapism in this.

As a female player, I always feel sidelined in my hobby when my character’s only fashion choices are skimpy miniskirts, chainmail bras or other items designed for the male gaze. As a designer, I value virtual items that contribute to the atmosphere. When Crystal Center is full of avatars in tropical shirts, sunglasses, and so forth, it makes Next Island feel even more like an island paradise. Many players seem to agree, importing things like sundresses, hats and sandals from the others planets to wear on our beaches.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we’ll never make bikinis (or I guess Speedos for the fellows!), we plan to have a wide variety of fun and interesting island wear in future. In development right now, we have some jungle armor, a set of protective goggles for Elysian laboratory researchers, jungle boots, a sweet tiki sundress, and many others.

Most importantly, if you are in Greece, and unable to work the teleporter to return to Tropical Next Island, please post your full avatar name on this forum thread to request a transfer back.

Next Island put a lot of work and effort into yesterday’s content, and right now, we’re working to have everything resolved and working as designed. Personally, I’ve been really particularly looking forward to releasing Dark Lysterium and the Island Shirts, and I hope to be able to share these new items with you very soon!

May 1, 2012 / EU Release 12.6

Today’s content release introduces Dark Lysterium, offers new missions, and introduces new blueprints, including the Hoplite Gloves and the long-awaited tropical clothes!

New Mineral

Dark Lysterium Common mineral lysterium, in the alternate dimensional reality of Next Island, sometimes takes on strange properties.

Missions

Axonic Diodes At the end of Samuel’s mission, he says he’s still missing a small but vital piece of his logical circuits, so Crystal Center’s crafter Malcolm Campbell has decided to make a workaround for the very last part Samuel needs.

Arthur’s Secret Crush Arthur, the Official Island Greeter reveals a not-so-secret crush on a special lady.

Helen’s Super Epic Hunting Adventure! Huntress Helen Venture sends the player on a super epic, very dangerous hunting mission!

Beachside Fashion Sara Murray is showing off a cute new tropical shirt down at the Crystal Bay tiki bar. Do a favor for her, and she’ll show you how to make one too.

Blueprints

Lesser Elysia The Elysians developed this synthetic fabric to stay cool in the jungle and stay warm on cold island nights. You can purchase this blueprint from a technician to get started crafting clothes.

Island Shirt

Elysian’s Tropical Top

Hoplite Gloves

Many new components like Campbell’s Basic Framework, Helen Venture’s Walking Stick and Chrysoberyl Fasteners.

Fixes / Modifications

To Infinity and Beyond! For new arrivals to the island, we’ve changed Mary’s challenge to unlock Greece. Instead of choosing the correct argument in favor of time travel, 1314-Mary now wants players to prove themselves in the Elysian virtues before she’ll judge them worthy of the secrets of time travel. This introduces more of the Elysian backstory, and makes travel to Greece more epic and exciting. Don’t worry, existing time-travel crystals and the existing cave location have not been changed, so existing player won’t be forced to re-run this mission.

Loot Revisions We have made some changes to the locations and frequency of island loot. We plan these revisions to make sure items are dropping as designed, and specifically to make starter missions and blueprints easier to complete.

Shepherd’s Beach Tom Shepherd’s mission, Inventing A Color, and Bess Mackenzie’s first mission, Genetic Research 1, are now daily repeatable missions.

Enchanted Village These scenic spot is no longer home to a backwards, flying river. We built a dam. Just kidding, we remodeled the river.

Upcoming

We have one more piece of island clothing on the way, but we encountered last-minute difficulties. We expect this to be available in a patch next week.

(We’ve not made any changes to the components, uses or functionality of either item, just tweaked and finalized the item art.)

Have you synced up with Raptr yet? You can connect with Next Island on Raptr to track your played hours, meet other players, and exchange Next Island news. You can also use Raptr to show off your gaming stats to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and to track your other owned and played games.

Next Island is an alternate dimension, which frequently resembles Earth or the rest of the Entropia Universe, but has some small and signifigant changes. For example, Dr. Kylon and Dr. Mackenzie discovered that the DNA of Next Island’s wild boar is just different enough from Earth’s sus scrofa domesticus to have disastrous results.

Some consider Dark Lysterium an anti-matter or reverse version of Lysterium. However you see this new mineral, it can be mined and refined like the existing Lysterium. The Elysian scientists have taken advantage of the unique properties of this reverse Lysterium, and they use it in special technology.

I’m successfully mining, refining and crafting with Dark Lysterium in test, so we’re on track to release this on May 1st.

Anyway, you can see from that picture that I’ve tested that blueprint quite a lot today.  And you see what else I got in my loot window! I got a couple instances, but there’s one right on top in my crafting loot window. Since Lesser Elysia is a tailoring blueprint, I received another tailoring blueprint. And it’s a new one:

So pleased to see this working smoothly in test! Players should be able to craft Lesser Elysia from pretty common ingredients, and as they craft they have a chance to receive a blueprint for new clothes, which use Lesser Elysia as a component.