Good day everyone! I wanted to go over a list of coming updates to our Azure Infinitum Community that are coming soon.
There's some jumbo plans at work that are on the way to being complete and the whole party kicks off starting in May. I'm so excited, are you?
Below is a list of things that were announced or discussed at our monthly live panel that streams live straight from our core in Final Fantasy XIV Online, as well as some other additions and coming updates.
Last Saturday's live panel that we call Azure Grand Assembly, had a lot to talk about and we announced AZURE INFINITUM: RESURGENS CAERULEUM which is an ambitious new project with a trailer you can watch here.
Take a look at everything listed below, I've separated each update into categories that fit which parts of the community that they correspond to. Cheers! -Reika
There's never been a better time to join or become an Azure Infinitum member.
The next threshold arrives May 1st.
[Community-Wide]
AZURE INFINITUM: RESURGENS CAERULEUM
-An ambitious new project announced on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. It is a compilation of large updates to the Azure Infinitum community and associated services, social media, and more, in a great effort to take a step into the next grand threshold as a community, give ourselves fresh coats of paint, and launch a limit break of success that will inspire a greater level of activity, pave the way toward the future, and begin to establish Azure Infinitum as a gaming clan community while fleshing out our brand and reach.
-This project's main features includes an all-new Azure Portal Website, a refreshed Azure Community Site (made from the present Shivtr site), more active updates across our social media, establishment of Azure Wings (branches for organized content play sessions in other games as Azure Infinitum), the return of the Azure Infinitum Podcast, and more.
Azure Wings
-Our new name for Azure Branches, and will become established 'mini-guilds' in games outside of our core in FFXIV Online. Azure Wings will be lead by appointed Wing Commanders who will host weekly content or "Play-Sessions" to create community group activities. Been wanting to slay a hard boss in said game but can't get bodies? Azure Wings may be for you if we establish a Wing in said game.
Azure Universe is also another form of grouping outside of FFXIV, explained below.
-Currently our Monster Hunter World Azure Wing is on-hiatus until a new Wing Commander is appointed.
-Azure Wings will be chosen slowly and managed carefully, do not expect there to be many at first. Our goal is to start small with one or two and see where things go. Some Wings may be adaptable if they are a part of a franchise (Take Call of Duty or Battlefield for example) and can jump to the next game to begin activity in it as they release.
Wing Commander
-A new sub-rank that will be a role/rank/title for those who lead Azure Wings. Wing Commanders will be listed on the new Official Azure Wings Page on the new Portal Site.
-Wing Commanders will lead Wings, guide their direction, create events, host play sessions, and recruit for their Wings. They will be appointed community members who will be given authority over our official ventures into other worlds.
Sub-Ranks
-Like Wing Commander, or the name of a Wing a member is in, such as MHW Member, will be added to a member's Discord Role and Website Description/Rank showing they are a Wing Commander, or member of said Wing.
-Wing Commanders are only listed outside of FFXIV, and will only be named Wing Commanders in a non-FFXIV game if said game allows for a custom title.
-Wing Commanders specifically will be listed on the new Official Azure Wings Page on the new Portal Site.
Universal Ranks
-All basic ranks, such as Member, Scout, Scout Captain, Lieutenant, General will be universal ranks that hold the same level of membership and authority across our network and community.
-The all new Azure Infinitum Rules & Guidelines Charter has been written to universally cover the community, as well as listing any specifics for FFXIV, Azure Services, and will be updated slowly over time with any new guidelines if needed to correspond to future new features, Wings, or other projects by Azure. Universal Ranks and Rules assures order and organization across our community, whether in our forums, core games, Wings, Universe, Services, and more.
-In the case of Azure Wings and Azure Universe groups, Council ranks will remain in authority throughout our community, but will take a more background role in Wings and Universe content, unless needed to act or step-in as a Council member. Wing Commanders and Universe member organizers shouldn't worry about high ranks that attend their events imposing on them, unless of course there are serious issues that require a higher authority rank. Council ranks will be informed of their specific jurisdictions in Wings and Universe content.
Azure Universe
-Our upcoming tool to help our members provide a list of games they currently regularly play that are not games supported by Azure Wings.
-Universe will only be lightly overseen by leadership, giving members most of the reigns to list what they play and how to group with them. If a member regularly plays a certain game with clan or guild features and there is no Azure Wing for that title, a member can list it on Azure Universe and use our Services like Discord and others to let people know where they can join them, organizing their own events or simple play sessions. Even in games without clan or guild features, members will be recommended to squad up using Azure Universe.
-If members create a regularly active squad, clan, or guild in another game, they may petition it to become an Official Azure Wing, upon which they may request to be made a Wing Commander to begin leading official weekly activity for Azure Infinitum. This creates a lot of possibility to help us grow our reach as a community, and let those leading the charge into other areas grow in their position in Azure.
This may also lead to further future endeavors.
-The coming Azure Universe page will allow members of the community to submit simple details, including their name in our community, any other usernames like PSN Profiles, Gamertags, Steam Names, Nintendo Friend Codes, or other ways, and names of titles they regularly play, with options to list short messages like "Looking for Group in..." etc.
-Guilds/Clans/Squads/etc made within Azure Universe using the Azure name should also be submitted to be listed on the Azure Universe page.
This will only help you achieve more activity in your efforts to bring people together.
Supporting Azure Infinitum Officially With Clan-Tags
Along with Azure Wings, Azure Universe, and our FFXIV Core, members of our community may use certain tags or bracketed clan titles in other games or places online to represent us regardless of their affiliation or rank within the community, such as AZURE, AZUR, Azure, or others that may be developed depending on certain platforms, games, and limitations. Some places only allow for a 4-character clan-tag, some are all capitals or lowercase, some are 5-characters, it can vary.
-Places that allow descriptions such as player or character profiles should mention azureinfinitum.com if using our tag if possible. We know that the word "Azure" is semi-popular, so there may be some instances that we'll have to get creative- so in that case, hopefully we can list some further info that differentiates us from others also using Azure in their title.
-These tags and our url may be used across social media and other places in profile names, descriptions, and more, showing your affiliation and support of Azure Infinitum. The more support and unity we can get, the better, and it shows to all who see us that we are an active, organized, and unified community. This can lead to much more discovery of our community by others and help Azure grow.
FFXIV CORE
A new term for the core of our community which stems from Final Fantasy XIV Online where we've been established for nearly 6 years as one of the top ranked worldwide communities. Our FFXIV Free Company will always remain a center of importance for Azure Infinitum and will cease to be supported. Currently many plans are underway to infuse our FC with a surge of activity and growth, flying higher than ever before very soon.
Azure Services
Azure Services is the new official term for the services we provide that is managed by Kazushime Hikaru/Reika Fujishima, the Azure Council, or appointed Wing Commanders or other officially appointed aids, whether Social Media Pages, Linkshells in FFXIV, our Steam Group and PSN Community, our Discord, our Websites, but not our Wings, Universe Groups, or FFXIV Core.
[Current Azure Website]
http://azureinfinitum.com
-Our current site will become unavailable in different doses over the next 13 days from April 17th through May 1st due to many back and front end work being performed to transform it into what will be our new Community Site.
This site will be under a different domain eventually, and will be linked to from the all-new Azure Infinitum website which (http://azureinfinitum.com) will point to around launch on 5.1.2020.
-All accounts will be automatically transferred over to the new community portal hosted here on a new major update to our shivtr site where we will continue to host community content and information regarding activity across our community.
-All Azure Alumnus and Azure Members will soon be updated to a universal Azure Members rank, which members of our future Azure Wings (branches of Azure in other games) will also gain when joining our community.
Those in our FFXIV community will find familiarity while also experiencing something new, and those new to Azure Infinitum coming from other sources will find a home there that wont be just FFXIV based.
-Our current Rules Page on this site will soon be updated to reflect our re-written and updated set of organized guidelines as our new Azure Infinitum Rules & Guidelines Charter. Most are not 'new' just painstakingly freshly written to fit our current day community and organization.
[New Azure Portal Website]
A New Home For Everything Azure Infinitum
One of the biggest parts of stepping into our next threshold is developing a portal or home page for everything Azure Infinitum. This is vital to giving a great example of the breadth of our community to those who visit, while providing pages and resources to help discover everything Azure has to offer. And it launches May 1st.
Revamped News
A system of latest news updates, featured posts, event announcements, content updates- and many other items, will now be displayed in organized sets of thumbnails on the home page.
Azure Days Page
-Our quarterly celebratory weekend event, Azure Day Weekend, now finds a home on an all-new Azure Day page! This page will feature the latest information regarding the next Azure Day event for both regular or anniversary Azure Day Weekends, Summer Festival, and Seasonal Azure Days. These events take place in our FFXIV Core, but there are plans to expand it across the community in other forms eventually. These ideas include expanding Azure Day celebratory events into Azure Wings and online contests across Azure Services. Stay tuned for more information on this.
-The Azure Day Weekend May 2020 Program Guide will be live upon the launch of the new Portal Website, complete with event details and information for the grand celebration taking place across May 30th and 31st.
Azure Infinitum Podcast
-Returning for Episode 3 and beyond, Azure Podcast's returning episode will be hosted on the coming Azure Infinitum Podcast Page which will have information about each episode, hosts, and the episodes themselves linked from the RA:N YouTube where they'll be hosted.
-Azure Infinitum Podcast started as a test-run around 1 year ago but went on hiatus.
We're happy to announce its return and that it will stay regular going forward with new episodes.
-Azure Infinitum Podcast will be lead by Kazushime Hikaru/Reika Fujishima, selected Council members, with the possibility of featuring other community members over time. Topics discussed will go over the latest Azure Infinitum community updates, followed by featured topics discussing FFXIV, other games, and random hilarity we hope to manifest!
Azure Wings Page
-As mentioned above about Azure Wings, a page detailing individual Wings that are active or in the works will be listed, along with any Wing Commanders and their info, and details regarding Wing events, games, and content.
Azure Universe Page
-As mentioned above about the Azure Universe feature coming with the new site, will be a directory of names submitted by our members, mostly from the official Azure Universe thread from our community forums on our new community site.
-Details regarding who's looking to do what, or who plays what, and what groups may have formed whether large or small, with plenty of information on how to represent Azure even if you're completely alone- will all be listed here.
Social Feeds
-Not everyone has social media, and not everyone knows about all of ours. New feeds displaying posts from across our Azure Infinitum community and some from Run Around:Network will display on the new site. Check out our section below about Azure Services to get an idea what these feeds will feature.
About Page
-A new page about Azure Infinitum will be present at the launch of our new site.
This page will begin with a perfect introduction to Azure Infinitum as a community and as a brand. Simple details and descriptions will describe all of our community features.
-An Azure Timeline Chart will give a visual look at each year of our community, certain growths, improvements, and more will be listed showing how far we've come, when certain events or themes began, and more.
-An Azure History section will feature a telling of our incredible story of innovation, endurance, and teamwork starting from humble beginnings and leading towards success and unforgettable moments.
-Azure Lore that has become a large part of our formalities, customs, and back-stories as a community, including some role-play lore and some very real lore that personifies and binds us together both aesthetically and honorably will have a section here as well. Such examples include how we got our name and the philosophy behind it, why blue and gold, what our crest means, the different eras of Azure and how they impacted our success, and more.
Events Page
-A page detailing each current event in Azure Infinitum will be listed with times, details, and prerequisites for joining in.
How to Join Page
-A page detailing how to join Azure Infinitum will be listed that covers the very basics of how anyone can get started in our community. This may be very helpful for our Scouts or those bringing friends or loved ones to Azure Infinitum.
Azure Calendar Page
-A page hosting a new calendar will be listed. This calendar will most likely utilize Google Calendar and can be subscribed to/followed. The new calendar will list all of our FFXIV Core and Wing events, and any official events elsewhere.
Support and Leadership Page
A page listing members of our Support and Leadership ranks will be listed, and will provide small personal bios for each, creating a personal reference of who our Support and Leadership members are.
Other Features
-A feed or featured widget will display content on our home page from streamers in our community who have submitted their details on an official thread for streamers that will be present on our new Community Site.
-A feed or featured widget will display content from content creators or influencers in our community who may wish to share their content, blogs, articles, feeds, videos, and creations and gain more exposure by having their work show on our home page. Details can be submitted via an official thread on our new Community Site.
-Tweets from members in our community who submit their Twitter handles via an official thread on our new Community Site will have a special section.
-As Azure is a brand of Run Around:Network and our community, some RA:N content will also be featured.
-A highly requested feature is an Azure Shop. There are plans currently underway to create Azure Infinitum merchandise, which may range from but is not limited to- notebooks, cups & mugs, t-shirts, accessories, phone cases, and more. The Azure Shop may not be available upon launch, but the option will be listed on the site's navigation.
-An Azure Services directory of all our optional services will be listed on its own page, with descriptions of each. This includes all of our social media and in-game services like Linkshells in FFXIV and more, plus our hubs like our PSN Communities and Steam Group, Discord, and whatever else we add in the future.
-A donation system will be set up to support the community and the needs behind running it, providing more possible physical merch for contests & giveaways, and to support hosting costs & fund future projects.
-Some affiliate ads from our network and links will also be installed. Items sold through these affiliates also help Azure Infinitum and RA:N.
-A page discussing How To Become A Partner will be listed with details on officially Allying with Azure Infinitum for allies from our FFXIV CORE, Azure Wings, and beyond.
-A Contact Page will be listed, which will detail several ways about how to get in touch with community leaders or support if needed.
-The new site is being developed with what is called Responsive Coding. This means it is adaptable to any device, with special mobile and web versions appearing naturally depending on window-size or which device accesses it.
-An Art Gallery will be listed, which will host a variety of art submissions and commissions from illustrators and members over the years, and will eventually begin to feature new entries.
[New Community Website]
A Refreshed Home For Azure Forums, Community Details, Organization, & More!
-An all-new version of our Shivtr-based website will release under a new url announced at the launch of our new Portal Site, as well as linked to it, at the beginning of our Resurgens Caeruleum Project starting May 1st. Many features will be removed, added, or repurposed. The Community Site will fit Azure Infinitum as a whole, and will be user friendly and pleasing to those inside and outside our FFXIV CORE, from Wings, Universe, visitors from RA:N, and more.
Azure Infinitum Rules & Guidelines Charter
-As mentioned above in this post, our Rules & Guidelines Charter will find a new home on this site. It has been lovingly gone over and rewritten to better communicate our General Rules and for the length to be less intimidating to read.
-The Charter will now focus on our General Rules, and will lead into Guidelines that cover a wide range of universal behavior and etiquette that we expect in our community.
Following the General Rules, will be further guidelines that separate from 'rules' and focus more on 'here's how this works, here's how that works' listing protocol and more. This will help folks be able to sort out what's most important to know versus learning how the workshop works in FFXIV mixed into important necessary guidelines people need to know first.
-Some specific guidelines for Azure Services, Wings, Universe, or FFXIV will have tags that can be easily referenced.
All-New Azure Infinitum Forums
-The Azure Infinitum Forums will be getting an overhaul, with very few threads being kept around from the distant past that offer no value and takes up space on our server.
-The Forum sections and sub forums will be massively revamped while also becoming more simplified. The old forums were created years ago before we had Discord, and it is no longer necessary for us to have as many sections that are dedicated to certain topics.
-Forum activity did slow some when we launched our Discord, but they still provide a handy place to host threads for contests, have other types of discussions that wont get as buried as Discord conversations, use threads for filing certain information, create threads for certain events, and have places where we can all host certain details that we can link to.
-There's still a lot of use for our Forums, and the key is to use Discord and our Forums in harmony in ways that complement the two.
-The new Azure Forums will be a major location that will be recommended for streamers, content creators, influencers, artists, and those with talents & more to share their content and make threads in supporting areas that will be provided. Those who want to feature their feeds or content on our home page Portal Site will also be able to submit details in special threads. Simple associated channels will also be provided on our Discord.
-Azure Universe and some Wing events and content will also be recommended to utilize the uses of threads on our forums for helping organize, discuss, and share their events. Simple associated channels will also be provided on our Discord.
-The Event Calendar on our Community Site will be similar to the old one that we've always had. Its purpose will now specifically be to list simple entries that members can post regarding Azure Universe groups, Wing events, things like in-game weddings, and more. Official Events such as FFXIV CORE events will still be listed, but our FC Action/Buff Schedule from XIV will be moved elsewhere to its own page.
Official FFXIV CORE FC Action/Buff Schedule Page
-The official schedule for our Free Company Buffs in FFXIV will be listed on a special page, with names and detailed explanations of what our buffs do and why they are listed on different days of the week.
-Information on how and when we craft and operate our Grade III FC Actions/Buffs will also be listed.
Community Roster Overhaul
-A great overhaul of the current roster is planned to take place before the rebirth of our Community Site. This will see to certain community members' profiles being adjusted appropriately in rank or activity.
-The Azure Alumnus rank will be no more. We will now consider all who are registered on our website as Azure Members whether they are active or in-active in game, within one of our Wings, FFXIV Free Company, or elsewhere- so long as they are not banned or were removed for good reason.
-Scout Captain, Wing Commander, and General Ranks will be created, with some members being added to certain ranks respectively.
-Registering on our site and joining its roster will become the universal way of joining Azure Infinitum, and while not mandatory for those within our community to do so, there will be many benefits. These benefits include eligibility for Legacy Member status in our FFXIV CORE Free Company, ability to better utilize multiple community features, enter online contests and giveaways, and possibly even more benefits down the road.
New Design Aesthetic
The Community Site will display an entirely new design aesthetic matching the new Portal Site and representing Azure Infinitum's overall themes.
Because Shivtr's service's mobile theme is locked, the mobile version will not see much, if any, design differences, however, the full site can still be used on mobile devices by clicking "view web version" at the bottom of the mobile site.
Links, Resources, & More
-Sidebars will now display new helpful and informative links that correspond to Azure Services, Azure Wings, Azure Universe, RA:N, our new Portal Site, and websites & resources that are from properties we support, such as FFXIV, and future Azure Wing supported titles. The idea is to make it resourceful, represent the community, and also- fun!
-Some community content may also be displayed, such as certain feeds submitted by members, or other content generated by our community.
-Affiliate Ads will be displayed that sell products from trusted retailers that when purchased, supports the operation of the community and may help fund future projects and merchandise.
-Upcoming Member Birthdays will continue to be displayed.
-Links to threads that will host certain compilations of in-game or game-related submitted content, kind messages, videos, or stories, such as Message Book Archives or our Azure Yearbook Channel, will be created and reorganized and saved in special threads. We'd like to clear our Message Book in FFXIV soon as well as our Yearbook Discord channel so new entries can take place too. This may not be ready upon launch.
[RA:N]
-Run Around:Network's main site will resume once more in posting content- currently on hiatus due to issues presented by the CV-19 Pandemic and also due to the amount of work being put into the Azure Infinitum: Resurgens Caeruleum Project as a whole.
-Content related to Azure Infinitum will completely have a home on the new Portal and Community Sites, however RA:N will continue to report on some Azure activity as well, with it being our beloved community brand. As time passes, some editorials, retrospectives, special works, or news that may relate to Azure will be posted under a new Azure tag and section that will appear in the near future on this site.
-Feeds and news from Azure will also show up on special sections on RA:N that will appear in the near future on this site.
-An official link to the Azure Infinitum Portal Site will be also appear in the future on this site.
[FFXIV]
Azure Day
-Azure Day May 2020 takes place May 30th and 31st.
Activity Policy
-Our Activity Policy which normally discharges members who've arrived at 120 days straight offline, has been increased to 180 days or roughly 6 months at this time. This is mostly due to the CV-19 Pandemic and lack of some knowledge on the whereabouts or well-being of individual members who may have suddenly become inactive. All members discharged for excessive inactivity are welcome to return to Azure Infnitum Free Company as a part of our 3-join policy.
We hope that the extra months provided may assist in seeing a return of some members, but we cannot hold inactive space forever due to imbalances it creates in our active model.
Anyone is welcome to comment in our Discord's Absence Notifications channel to keep in touch and let us know what's up. Most of the time we make acceptions toward our 3-join policy as long as there's been communication.
Return of Our Ongoing Recruitment Drive & Other Recruitment Measures
-Careful Recruitment and Recruitment Drives will continue after May 1st to further increase activity and welcome fresh membership into Azure under our new coats of paint across the community and under our fresh Rules Charter.
-Careful Recruitment is a method outlined by Reika Fujishima that is practiced to find higher percentages of quality new members for the community at a slower pace.
-Recruitment Drives are bursts of discussions with players about Azure Infinitum, where Careful Recruitment procedure is used to help ensure new batches of recruits are well informed and spoken to about Azure policies. From our data, these drives have higher percentages of recruiting newer players who will grow into their journey in FFXIV alongside Azure, and other veterans we look for in hopes of adding to our overall core- the list of most active members.
-We believe that a community unable to welcome in fresh faces to the community and do so with care and consistency is one that is fated to grow stale and diminish. We also believe that in order to find more who'll become part of our core, we have to find them first. Activity is all over the place in this time of CV-19, so there's even better reason to welcome in new waves of active players who'll be great fits for our community.
-As always, we consider those who're already in the community first when welcoming new members into it, especially in batch recruitment like Recruitment Drives. We will strive more than ever before to put in extra effort to build new generations of active players as time goes forward, ones set to last and also mesh well with our present membership, to the very best of our ability. This ensures our members we will always grow, adapt, and have available personalities to grow and play with.
-Players of various time zones will be searched for in order to further strengthen our activity that is available at different times of day, such as strengthening our early morning and late night crowds.
Company Chest
-Company Chest tabs 4 and 5 has been unlocked, along with the ability to store more Company Actions/Buffs. Chest tab 5 is now used for Azure Council needs which is the management of materials for buff/prize/ship part creation. Anyone can deposit prize donations to tab 5 which will be added to the Azure Prize Pool.
-Materia of grades IV through VIII, as well as grade IV through VIII DoL/DoH materia is now allowed in Tabs 2-3 of our Company Chest. Old discontinued main stat materia is still prohibited.
Weekly Events
-Memoria Misera Extreme Learning and Progression Parties begin April 17th and will begin grouping on the FC Estate Lawn every Friday at 8:30p ET/5:30p PT.
-Friday Morning Classics has been post-poned until further notice. This event ran from the last quarter of 2019 through to just a few weeks ago, as a weekly event spearheaded by Pennadrin Stormhelm, and acted as a weekly clear session of mostly older raid content from past expansions.
-Azure Eden Tuesdays will continue until the launch of Patch 5.3. This event runs weekly Eden's Verse normal raid clears every Tuesday at 8:30p ET/5:30p PT.
-Wondrous Wednesdays: After Dark Edition, is now listed as Wondrous Wednesday Nights.
-Treasure Thursdays Morning Maps events are still on hiatus.
-With the launch of Patch.5.3, Azure Eden Tuesdays will go on hiatus until the next set of Eden raids releases in Patch 5.4 (estimated to be toward mid-Fall 2020 or the end of the year.), and a new version of a favorite Azure event will take its place, Azure 24-Man Tuesdays! This new event will run at the same time, and will run both The Copied Factory and the new Nier-themed raid that is expected to release in 5.3. 24-Man Fridays will not be returning for the foreseeable future, so long as we have Memoria Misera, or any relic-themed trial hosted as Friday's main event.
-Monstrous Mondays will continue to run Cinder Drift Extreme learning and progression parties until Patch 5.3 launches.
Organization
-Pennadrin Stormhelm has been promoted to Lieutenant rank and has joined The Azure Council.
-A number of other promotions in our Scout & Support Team have been made. It is planned that this team will grow much more in the coming month as we work to further strengthen our team as we grow, and to continue to build a stronger foundation for our future as a community.
-Scout Captain Trials will be added alongside applications that appear on our new Community Site in May. These trials will begin once an application is approved, which will see a member of Member or Scout rank promoted immediately to Scout Captain as a trial. During this trial, the S.Captain will be taught event protocol, leadership ethics and strategies, and will be guided with the purpose of joining the Lieutenant ranks in the lower Azure Council. This is an attempt of ours to discover who among our community may have prior officer or leadership experience, and/or who may be cut out to be a great fit among Azure Leadership- which can lead to many possibilities, and is among the highest honor in supporting our community!
If successful, we will be able to expedite the rate in which we promote those who've got enough under the belt to be ready as an entry-level Lt. we can further mold and guide. More people in our Council means more available hosts, more available authority if needed, more assistance to the Council and Scouts as a team which helps everyone, and more available leaders for our community members overall.
-Donations for Azure Day Weekend May 2020 are being accepted! You can trade any minions, glamour, materials, orch. rolls, gear, mounts, & more to any Council rank (Lt., or Reika), or deposit items into Tab 5 of the Company Chest. All items donated will be added to the Azure Prize Pool. Gil is also welcomed, as we usually have big gil prizes like 1 million gil Golden Flash Raffles, participation bonuses, and many other gil prizes.
Alt Registration
-Registration for Alt Characters will return as of May 1st via a new Discord channel which will allow us to more easily reference our member's alt characters for management needs. This is necessary also for problem solving. If a member has no access to a PC or mobile device to be able to use Discord, a Council Member will post in the channel for them. Alt names and their owners in the channel will be able to be referenced by all members. Alts shouldn't be used in complete secrecy, we find that potentially destructive given possible situations and also somewhat shady.
-Normally, we have required our members to post their main and alt's names on our current Alt Registration Thread at our current site. We allow 1 main and 1 alt per member in our community. Alts will be discharged if too inactive and not registered, or if they show little use/activity and our in-game roster caps. We welcome members to bring their alt character to Azure Infinitum, it may help you and us more for it to be here, but definitely consider using it semi-regularly should you decide for it to take up a spot on our roster.
[Azure Services/Social Media]
FFXIV Linkshells
-Azure Hunters and Azure Industry Linkshells will receive an eventual boost as work harder to find more LS members.
-Industry Leaders will be appointed among the Industry Linkshell, and will be a new role added on Discord where it can be tagged. This role can be requested any time, but will only be granted to those with Crafters and Gatherers at the current level cap, and who seem to know their stuff! We hope Industry Leaders can be points of support for members looking for tips, mentoring, or guidance on DoL/DoH activity in FFXIV, and also potentially become an aid to the free company overall in this way and more.
Industry Leaders in the LS will not be marked as Leaders in the LS.
If this role has significant impact on the community, it may be considered to become an official company rank.
FFXIV Fellowships
-A major roster and content cleanse is coming to the current Azure Info Board & Recruitment Fellowships.
-Since February, the usage of our fellowships has gone on-hiatus. Fellowship activity will resume in May, with updated event information and special notices being posted more often in the Azure Info Board fellowship.
-Fellowship Invites will return in May, but will be randomly given out as members and leaders are online at the same time. Keep in mind there is still a glitch, when we invite sometimes it doesn't go through. All members will receive a one-time invite. Any member may request an invite as well.
-The Azure Infinitum Twitter Account at @AzureInfinitum will continue to share all news related to Azure, but may begin featuring content from Square Enix franchises, Run Around:Network, Azure Wings and content related to Wing-related games.
-The Azure Infinitum Instagram Account at @azure_infinitum will continue sharing randomly selected content from our Discord's FFXIV Screenshots, but will begin to include randomly selected content from the non-FFXIV Screenshots channel as well, especially content from Azure Wings in the near future.
Facebook Group
-The Azure Infinitum Facebook Group will begin allowing non-FFXIV members to join, with some features or descriptions to be rewritten to better adapt Azure Infinitum as a community that is poised to eventually grow as a community overall and not just bound to FFXIV content.
Facebook Page
-The Azure Infinitum Official Facebook Page at facebook.com/AzureInfinitum will continue sharing content and news related to Azure Infinitum, with some additions from RA:N, Azure Wings content and updates from Wing-related games.
-Facebook Azure Contests w/prizes and giveaways are planned to take place in the near future, stay tuned!
Tumblr
-Azure Infinitum's Tumblr will return in activity soon, with the focus of becoming another avenue where galleries of Azure Infinitum media can be posted, along with Tumblr-specific shared content that relates to supported media & more.
PSN Community
-Just recently the PSN Community App for mobile devices was discontinued. This has thrown a wrench into our plans to utilize the Azure PSN Community as a way to quickly share content from our Instagram and other media, as well as other strategies to uphold an active space for Azure on our member's PlayStation 4 consoles.
The PSN Community for Azure will remain, but may receive significantly less updates. We encourage you to help keep things alive and active by continuing to share you PlayStation screenshots from your screenshot gallery, host PSN parties, and make use of any communication or grouping capability with our PSN roster that is there.
-Due to the limit of available invitations for listed Events, we will mostly cease to use the Event feature in the PSN Community.
-We encourage those who haven't joined to do so if you own a PlayStation 4! Our PSN Community took a big blow last year when an Ex-Leader who owned the original deleted it out of spite, causing close to 150 community members to lose some contact and activity over PlayStation Network (not everyone has everyone's ID's memorized or friended), and we've been working to grow it again since. It could really use more love from the community!
Steam Group
-Somehow one of our lesser used features is our Steam Group, those who own Steam should consider joining our Group! There are plans to post notices, our podcast episodes, create discussions for PC members, and content suited for Azure Wings and Azure Universe that are PC-focused!
[Azure Wings]
Monster Hunter World PS4 Wing
-Our Monster Hunter World PS4 Wing is still on a hiatus until a new Wing Commander or two can be appointed and activity is restarted. A poor decision to change our Hunt-A-Thons to Monday mornings effectively killed activity and recruitment ended upon its hiatus. This is Azure's very first Wing (previously called Branch), and started running Azure Hunt-A-Thons in 2018 and early 2019 first, then was rebooted in August 2019 and ran until February 2020 when it went into hiatus.
-MHW is full of content and is very viable for more Azure activity and events. At its peak we were running several full parties and quickly catching people up to the Iceborne expansion & began holding Iceborne hunt events alongside parties that assisted new players as well.
-This Wing will be scheduled to be revived as soon as possible, keep an eye out for any updates!
Call of Duty Wing
-An Azure Wing supporting the Call of Duty franchise starting with Modern Warfare was being planned, but has since been cancelled due to separation of interested leading parties. This Wing was meant to be our first adaptable one that would be positioned to grow into each new release in the franchise. This may still be possible in the future, and like with all Wing propositions, this one will certainly remain at a higher viability should future options arrive.
Wing Propositions and New Wing Development
-Want to help Azure take charge into the unknown, or, are you willing to help carry the Azure Crest and banners forward by leading that charge? Visit the all-new Azure Wings Page on our new site this May and read which Wings can use support, members, or Wing Commanders to help host official Azure Play-Sessions, or recruit for us in other games!
The Azure Wings official proposition thread on our new community site will be the forge that ignites the creation of future Azure Wings in viable locations across cyberspace! So don't forget to post there as well if you've got ideas for places Azure can grow!
[Discord]
Updates & New Channels
-A number of updates, changes, and new channels will be added some time before the May 1st and 2nd launch of the Azure Infinitum: Resurgens Caeruleum Project. Some lesser active channels may be removed or compiled, and a few new ones to better categorize Azure Gaming, Wings, Universe, and more will be added or adjusted. Other new channels on the way is a Request Help channel, and a channel to post Alt character names for Alt Registration and reference.
Changes to Azure Discord Membership
-Starting toward the end of this month, April 2020, the Information channel in our Discord will be adjusted to more clearly explain how to obtain member role, and a link to a compilation of information displaying links to our sites, services, & more will be displayed.
-As of May 1st, new members to Azure's Discord may only obtain one of our member roles (such as Discord Member, FFXIV FC Member, MHW WING Member, Allied Member) after they have registered on Azure Infinitum's new community website.
-Pruning of inactive members has now been heavily lessened as our Discord is no longer closed to just Azure Infinitum's active roster, on-vacation, or allied members from FFXIV.
-New roles we consider Sub-Roles will be added or adjusted: Wing Commander, MHW WING Member, and Industry Leader.
Bots
-We will continue to use Ser Aymeric and may reactivate the level-up system which we saw positive results using, which inspires more people to chat more often.
Higher level members on Discord may qualify for future contest entries, perks, and promotions that are in development now.
-Research is under way to add an amount of new bots to assist with adding more features to our Discord. Stay tuned for more information on this. They may or may not be implemented by May.
There's never been a better time to be an Azure Infinitum member.
The next threshold arrives May 1st.
Want to keep running around with us? Stay connected!
RA:N Facebook | Kazu's Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | G+ | Flickr | YouTube | LinkedIn | RSS
