Age Creation Proposal

[BenB]

1
I hope you do get better at texturing, cskid13. There are lots of internet tutorials for each piece of software. Sorry I'm sure you know that all ready! List of places with free texture sources: http://writers-guild.org/WGsite/W-G_Text...ces08.html and Calena wote about some of her texturing http://www.writers-guild.org/Forum/showt...php?tid=18
I see some of your posts on the guildofwriters.com forum. Does that mean you are mostly using Blender? Do you use 3D Studio Max too?

2
I think Emor and Karkadann and me were talking about a single age that is very long. So that the player feels like they really had a jorney to get through it. I think the idea was to have diferent builders make parts of this path way through. And each area would be in its own vis region. I think that would mean that we would have to make a connection point between one builders work and the next one in the path, so that this mesh could be shared by builders of the parts next door to your part, and the meshes could fit together that way. So may be each builder gets a part of this longer trip, may be each part has its own small puzzle, or may be a solutoin to part A is used to get through part D. Probably lots of other good tricks to use, too.
3

We need a good story for this. My ideas are too simple and always sound like something that was all ready done before! Something where we can add many diffrent sections like Karkadaans Bubble Run!

4
There is a colection of peoples thinking, writing about age building with other people http://www.writers-guild.org/Forum/showt...php?tid=25

[Emor D'ni Lap]

Have we decided for sure that we'd like to do a single age that is very large, or are we considering the possibility of doing a couple of smaller ages (or even one smaller age with a great story and puzzle)?

BenB and I, at least, are in agreement that we would like to work on an Age that really feels like a long journey: there seems to be nothing like that in URU, though I do believe that other fan Ages are approaching what we're thinking of.
Rather than a large open area, this Age would be a series of connected areas, each of which would be a small journey in itself and would, in one way or another, limit the explorer's path somewhat, guiding her/him toward the next area in the larger journey. These would be the shapes with which we're all well-familiar: winding canyons, paths through dense forests, underground tunnels, mountain trails, structures (of one origin or another!), and so on.

Anyway, my favorite part of age creation is story and puzzle design, so I'd be happy to do some of that if you'd like.

We also agree that we haven't come up with a good storyline for such a project, so if you want to throw out some suggestions, that would be great!
As mentioned earlier:

"I think what's needed is a story that motivates the player, then has a number of hurdles that must be overcome in separate areas that can be built by multiple volunteers, and a resolution...either in a final area or as a return to the first area."

Also, I think we should make sure to communicate well if this project is going to be a success. In my experience most of the group projects that fail do so because members stop communicating. So if any of us are too busy to work on it, that's fine, but we should make sure the other members know and have access to anything they need to continue the work themselves. That way progress can still be made, even if slowly.

Looking forward to hearing back from you!