Lordfly Digeridoo

So as an excuse to diddle with OpenSim, I've been working on a project lately that I've been trying to flesh out as I come up with it.

Basically after watching Spin Martin (aka Eric Rice) fight with his Saijo City concept for years, I decided I could do something better.

Saijo City, for those uninitiated, is Eric's attempt to make a dynamic meta-story, across a ton of platforms, that let people craft their OWN stories within the universe.

It's like an open-source comic book universe, I guess.

The problem is that he relies too heavily on people to craft it for him. He's spread the story across so many mediums and platforms (everything from SL to Kaneva to Twinity to comic books and GTA4), it's a jumbled mess.

My idea is to come up with a compelling experience first, and THEN let people modify the story and craft it as it happens.

It's late, and I should be sleeping, but here's my rough concept of how I'd like this all to play out. Feel free to criticize and suggest, I imagine that's what this board is for.

I apologize ahead of time, the following text was written down hastily more as a personal note for me as far as direction... it's very malleable and prone to changes.

Nu Athens
like saijo city, but bettah!
4-sim, large cyberpunk city, in Opensim
run by ConGlom, generic evil overseer/massive corp
-propaganda posters (ConGlom oversees all citizens for your protection)
-huge tower in center of city, overshadowing everything

DESIGN
city generally self-contained, skyscrapers covering borders
-lots of tech and skyscrapers grafted on older parts of city (21st century buildings with futuristic buildings built on top of them... better tech the higher you go... new tech literally grafted onto older buildings, ie high-tech screens, holographic projectors, pervasive cameras)
-cameras EVERYWHERE, propaganda posters EVERYWHERE (triangular signs in plazas that rotate/shift posters)
-gotham-style elevated mass transit system going throughout
-definite slum areas, definite business areas
-lots of graffiti, decreipit brick, abandoned buildings
-lots of nooks and crannies (think gta4)
-older parts of city made of brick, concrete, wood boards, etc.
-newer parts metal, glass, shiny
cross between gotham, saijo, City 17, chicago, new york,Equilibrium etc.
-lots of web integration, lots of dynamic information (news tickers, etc), lots of dynamic movement (flickering lights, traffic, mass transit, airplanes, etc)


NEW USER EXPERIENCE

starts on web page
-ConGlom puts pithy page online "to connect with those who haven't seen the light"
-download custom client, custom splash
-entering athens first time, extensive tutorial
-moving, appearance, etc.
-make sure tutorial fits with the world (ie obvious Corporate Positivism, propaganda)
-vague warnings about "underworld" areas (ghetto, underground economies, etc)
-users start in large bubble, full of nature and corporate outreach
-very disneyland, very theme park
-users exit into "new" part of the city, business section, very high-tech, very high upkeep
-as users go into other sims it becomes obvious not everything is high-falutin
-emphasis on detail, lots of street clutter (most buildings non-enterable, i'd imagine)
-lots of side alleys, fire escapes, places to jump/hop around
-think parkour

GAME
-social metagame, players dictate story and the story "reacts" with events, etc.
-corps, smaller corps, etc. provide equipment, clothing, accessories
-dynamic storytelling, elevating heavy users into parts of the story
-limited content creation, perhaps only a small sandbox/lab setup
-renting apartments, hanging out in spots, driving around, combat, fighting police, ConGlom, PvP?
-emphasis on exploration, social interaction


ECONOMY (long term after Opensim's stable and people are using the platform, mostly as a way to break even)
-simple Entropia-style economic credit system. $US 10.00 = $1000 gamebux
-cash-out rate fixed at $1000 gamebux = $USD 9.00
-paypal
-paying for credits main money input
-secondary system is manual labor (bot-proof minigames in factories that generate gamebux)
-gamebux spent on accessories, weapons, clothes, food, rent, etc.
-initially everything provided by ConGlom and subsidiaries, very basic, eventually as people find places to hang out, proper content creators come in to provide in-character items in shops/underground shops
-think City 17 basic necessities, encourages people to create/buy from content creators

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Lordfly Digeridoo

A picture of the work in progress....

Attached Thumbnails

 

Lordfly Digeridoo

Is it that ugly?

Joshua Nightshade

Not everyone's on the same sleeping schedule as you.

Lordfly let me upload a revision of this onto my sims on OSGrid too if anybody wants to see it.

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Vertigo Paris

Ohoh me me me! But I am not sure when I will be in world next.

(other then for my show that is....)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Trout Recreant Helllllooooo Verti! At last! The chance to rate one of my favorite people! Absolutely beautiful pictures. You are a strong, opinionated woman who is not at all afraid to express herself both verbally and physically. You have a strong sense of fantasy and mystery surrounding a drop dead beauty. You maintain an aloof intelligent exterior that we long to break through, but which might intimidate some men. It shows a complexity of personality that few possess. Based on these pictures, I am giving you an 8.4 on the official Trout Recreant Scale of Slutiness. You are a slut, but only in the best possible way, and any man lucky enough to see that side of you should count his blessings.

Joshua Nightshade

This isn't in SL, it's on OpenSim.

Vertigo Paris

Atashi Yue

Sounds like Bladerunner. You need some noodle shops.

Midi Reifsnider

Looks great, sounds interesting, I'm watching with interest.

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Charlemagne Allen

Very cool.... I would be glad to play in your universe. When do I get my Onda-Osaka deck and finger blades?

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Pretty things:
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FlipperPA Peregrine

Very cool start... and Verti, it is really easy to visit any OpenSim grids (as long as they're public access, heh).

Regards,

-Flip

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Vertigo Paris

I can haz knowledge, plz?

Charlemagne Allen

Woot! This means I might actually log into Open Grid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Raindrop Drinkwater

It looks good!

A little tiny insignificant critic: I read ConGlom as Condom.
But then, you know, I'm not obsessed. So that might explain it. Ahem.

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Lecktor Hannibal

Looks great LF, I'll be looking forward to it.

whyroc

very interested!

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Lordfly Digeridoo

Heh. I'm finding that my biggest problems are coming up with "dirty" architecture - jury-rigged storefronts, broken infrastructure, dirty textures. My normal design style in SL is very clean, sleek, efficient, angular, exact. In Nu Athens it needs to have the dystopian lived-in feel that many popular movies and places have. It needs to feel alive and abused.

Macphisto Angelus

I LOVE the concept and your ground work in planning. The pic looks very cool too. I will try to log in to OSGrid sometime today or tomorrow and go take a peek.

This is the kind of thing that keeps OpenSim so exciting. Not SL carbon copies.. but actual new worlds.

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Lordfly Digeridoo

It's actually not on OSGrid or any other grid Right now it's sitting on my desktop computer. I boot it up when I want to work on it. Eventually I'd like to get it going as a grid, but as a standalone thing -- the entire point is that it's going to be a standalone, unique experience. Something akin to a complete game, or story, or something - with luck, customization of the client and the orientation experience can be changed so much that a potential new user wouldn't even realize it's Second Life or Opensim related.

I suppose I can create accounts for people to visit in, as long as people promise not to fill it with prims or LOLdongs or something.

Lordfly Digeridoo

Maybe that might be a better way to see it being built and to offer criticisms... although I don't want to tie up your sim forever as I take my sweet, sweet time

Macphisto Angelus

Ah.. cool.

I saw Joshua's post about you letting him upload a revision and that is what I was planning to check out on OSGrid.

Gotta love the potential of OpenSim.

Eirik

No loldongs? Crap.

Count me out


j/k

I really love the idea, and would actually be very interested in checking it out in the future.

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Joshua Nightshade

I don't mind, it's not being used right now for much anyway since I can't count on SLU for ANYTHING.

So have at it. Like I said you can even build there if you want, but otherwise I'm content uploading the revisions whenever you want to send them to me.

Joshua Nightshade

No such thing as Open Grid.

There's the OpenSim platform, and several grids based on that. OSGrid is one of the biggest ones and is the official unofficial one. OpenSim office hours are held there.

Then there's Open Life Grid which is another popular one.

3rd Rock Grid is new but the guy involved seems decent.

And we're all familiar with Central Scam.

Lecktor Hannibal

I've got a sim in OpenLife grid and have messed around with various other ones. 3rd Rock Grid is doing a lot of infrastructure establishment. It looks quite promising as well. OpenLife though was the most attractive for me, plus 45k prims woot!