Friday, May 27, 2011

AD&DRPG Visual Renovations - Photo Blog

I don't really want to go into another in-depth explanation of things while I'm away on honeymoon, so I've decided to post a photoblog of my progress so far. :)  The visual renovations span over several areas, and I'm trying to work in the order which places the player would generally experience.

A redesigned town fountain in the entry town of Meriel.  The benches surrounding the fountain are movers that allow the player to lay down and relax, or perhaps take a nice AFK. ;)

The Magic Users guild.  The area in the middle of the room is an anti-gravity zone that lifts players to the next floor, and the cloths in the doorway are cloth objects.  All avatars in the building have sequences applied.

Some new landscaping in the southern part of Merinel.  The knight in the foreground is actually an enemy NPC spawn-point, and I thought it fitting to position them in what seems like an ambush.

A dense scene in Turkel forest that leads players to an important location nearby.  Since players can't fly, the felled trees make a nice transitional barrier from one area to another.

Gro Lahr mansion.  The mansion is plagued by a dark fog, and surrounded by a dying forest.  There has been extensive work on increasing area of this atmosphere outside the immediate area of the mansion, and the trees from Turkel forest now continue into this area.  A sharp gradient occurs where the trees begin to die off.

Turkel forest has been graced with a new mist, low-gravity zones (for good jumping!) and numerous firefly particles.  The low gravity zone makes jumping from trees very enjoyable!

The new appearance of the entrance to Traloria.  Notice the lowered terrain from the original entry as well as the new procession into the city proper.  A lot of detail work has been done in Traloria, though I'm trying to keep with the original vision of the build as much as possible.

A handy newsboard at the ground zero area.  If you click on the postings, they are elaborated upon via the say command in the user's chat.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Docked in Key West

Hey everyone!  If I've scheduled this post correctly, we should be arriving in Key West right about now and I'll be in range of communications again.  If I have some time I'll see if I can post some images from my phone, as I'll surely be itching to get back in touch with the world after getting off the cruise boat. :P

I've heard there are a lot of chickens in Key West, so I'll be on the lookout as I've been known in my time to be somewhat of a Chicken Chaser...


The plan afterward is to the return to the boat and head on to Nassau.  Hopefully it'll be a good time!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Interactive Building - Nougat Cave Hunt and the Key/Door Example

Last Thursday I spent a couple of hours overnight setting up a very simple (as far as game mechanics go) game in the SW City Airpark Pavilion.  The game, called Nougat Cave Hunt, is a simple seek-and-find where the player is prompted to collect and return 10 items (nougats, a creature of the SW City lore) within 120 seconds.

Pesky little critters them.

The mechanics for keeping count of the items and the time elapsed was done with SW City Interactive, but similar applications can developed in Active Worlds using only action commands.  There are certainly some limitations, but creative design can usually overcome them.


The Simple Hunt

When designing a game in AW, my experience has been that its best to think about the game mechanics first, and then work from there.  This is because there are a lot of things that object scripting leaves to be desired, and sometimes you have to tweak your concept a bit to get everything to line up.  In this example, we'll run with the concept of a hunt for an item, but since AW doesn't really do counting instances very well we will switch things up a bit.

CONCEPT: Player has find a hidden key, and click it to open a barred gate.

This is a simple game concept that has been executed in Activeworlds many times, but it is a good place to start because it gets builders thinking and creative and multiple uses of building commands.  With this in mind, lets introduce our objects.

KEY OBJECT ACTION LINE: activate visible no, solid no, move 0 4 0 time=3 wait=10 smooth name=gate

GATE OBJECT ACTION LINE: create name gate

So now we have our two objects.  See?  Simple.  Basically, what happens here is that the activate trigger applied to the key causes it to disappear from the scene (visible no, solid no) and it also causes the gate to rise 4 meters because the move command has a name parameter that is applied to the gate (name=gate, create name gate).

It isn't difficult to expand on the complexity of this interaction and make it into a challenging mini-game.  For example, you could set more keys and more doors, and require the player to pass through the gates before the wait parameter expires.  You could also set a hard time limit using a timer command.

There are many possibilities for hide-and-seek style gaming with object scripting, and if you'd like to share any examples... feel free to post them in the comment section!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wedding Day

Hey everyone, today's the big day.  This is the first of several automatic posts I should have fired up for the week, and if I scheduled it right then I should be gettin' hitched sometime around when this gets posted. ;)  Anyway, these posts won't be anything too big, just some new content to keep the site alive while I'm away.

I want to thank everyone for supporting Crystal and I... all of the well-wishes have been wonderful.  There was even a nice forum thread started for it. :)  (Finally something that won't cause a flame-war on the forums, amirite!?)  Check out this cool announcement Sidris made up for us:


Thanks guys. :)

We'll finish out the ceremonies today and then head off on honeymoon for a week, down to Florida and the Bahamas.  Hope everyone has a good week!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Out of time!

No more new content after this post :)  I'm making final preparations for my wedding tomorrow, so I'll be out of here.  I won't be around until next Saturday, but I've gotten a few things together and will try to have blogger set up automatic posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday concerning some of my projects from this week.

See ya everyone!

AWG Download - Basic Ground Zero

Basic Ground Zero (2 AWGs)


  • Basic Ground Zero
    • A small (2x2 coordinate) park that features pathways in the four cardinal directions
    • Pathways are centered on edge of coordinate grid for optimal expansion along the cell grid
    • Custom signage that demonstrates the parameters of the sign command.
    • Landscaped with trees immediately outside the GZ structure (includes a second AWG with no tree objects)

DOWNLOAD: Click here to download HA_groundzero.zip

SEED OBJECT: Centered on AWG.  The ground zero has no preferred direction!

COORDS: AW 7963.516s 1504.395e 2.0a 270

Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

AD&DRPG Visual Renovations - Title Screen

Hey everyone!  I've spent the past couple of days in AD&DRPG helping to get the world's half-decade old builds back up-to-date.  If you've never been to visit, AD&DRPG is a fantasy-themed role-playing game that uses Dungeons & Dragons gameplay mechanics for character stats, skills, and progression.  If you're a follower of the blog, you'll remember back in March when we reported that AD&DRPG would be open permanently.  Since they're around to stay, I wanted to contribute some of my time to help address the biggest gripe world visitors have had since it returned: the aging visuals.

In addition to the visuals I've also been addressing some navigation issues by making new NPCs that address players via the say command, but overall the chief concern has been to update areas with zones and particle effects, replace really low-res textures, get sequences to avatar objects... things like that.  Anything to help with interaction and immersion is being addressed, and it is really starting to show.

I would like to share all of my progress here on the blog (since this is a building blog, after all) and I think I'll do so in small snippets, to be released while I'm away next week.  I'll set them to be posted at various intervals through the week, so be checking for new posts!

Today, we'll be looking at the new world title screen.  The title screen appears when players drop into Merinel -- the ground zero town -- and is triggered by a simple bump trigger.  You can view it below.


As you can see from the video, there are a few things going on here.  Perhaps most noticeable is the camera switch -- this isn't native third person mode.  The user is forced into this camera position when they hit the bump trigger, and the camera itself is set to a pole object that moves and rotates back and forward.  In the actual view, you see the AD&DRPG logo, a large dragon, and several buttons.  The dragon is simple, and is stationary except for an appropriate flying sequence that has been set to loop. The two buttons on the left link to webpages, and the button on the right sets the camera location to the user -- effectively terminating the title sequence.

Commands used in the title sequence:
  • Camera
    • Used to begin and end the title sequence.  The 'location' parameter was first set to a named object (the pole) for the title camera, and then set to the user to terminate the title sequence.
  • Move
    • Used on the camera pole to give the camera the effect of zooming in and out.
  • Rotate
    • Used on the camera pole to give the camera the effect of zooming in and out.
  • Name
    • Used for objects that needed to be changed by bump or activate triggers.  In our case, everything that was meant for the title screen had a name assigned to it because when the player clicked 'PLAY,' all of the title screen objects needed to disappear.  'Activate visible <name> no' achieves this.
  • Sequence (Seq)
    • A flying sequence was applied to the dragon avatar object so that it would remain animated.
  • Scale
    • Scale is useful for detail work; in this example the dragon and logo were scaled.
  • URL
    • URL is pretty standard for accessing web-links from Active Worlds.  It is typically accessed via an activate command, and this is true in our example as it is used for interactive signage.
Anyway I don't want to go into a detailed explanation of how exactly to make a title screen like the one here, but this should get you started.  There are a lot of ways to go about it; be creative and see what you can do! :)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Noticeboard: Upcoming Build Contest in Yellow

Yellow world will be hosting a build contest in the near future, and they would like your help in choosing the contest theme.  Contest winners will receive V4 rights. They're split between the following themes:
Steampunk -- using physics and such to make fantastic machines and structures a la Victoriana. Haven't heard of steampunk? This ought to be a real winner for AW builders! Go to http://www.steampunktribune.com/2011_02_01_archive.html for some mind blowing stuff that will tickle any good builder's fancy

Building a better mousetrap -- physics and use of objects, action commands, etc.

Elemental theme -- each build would pick one of the basic elements water, fire, earth or air as the inspiration.
If you would like to throw in your two cents, I'm sure Ozman would appreciate the feedback.  Just visit this forum thread to contribute.

Monday, May 16, 2011

AWG Download - Kingmaker Interactive Game

Kingmaker Interactive Game (4 AWGs)


  • Kingmaker Interactive Game
    • An interactive card game where the player must pick one of three cards; if the card is a king, the player wins.
    • Timer sequence includes a card alternator so that the result isn't always the same
    • Timer sequence includes a reset for players so they can play as many times as they'd like
    • AWG includes a custom logo for Kingmaker
    • AWG includes a 2-coordinate wide pavilion for the Kingmaker game

DOWNLOAD: Click here to download HA_kingmaker.zip

SEED OBJECT: Centered on AWG, facing North

COORDS: AW 7950.428s 1492.491e 2.0a 178

Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

Noticeboard: VR Farm Seeks Modeler

VR Farm Ground Zero Area
VR Farm -- the farming simulation game in Active Worlds -- is looking for a new modeler to assist in continued development of the world.  Potential modelers should expect to be designing new crops and other farm-themed objects.

Prospective modelers should telegram DM Mercury to help, or visit the forums online at http://forums.mercuryonlinegames.com/

Images For Old Friends at Sonic HQ

A blast from the past found its way to me through MSN Messenger tonight, as Vector -- an old friend of mine from the Mobius Forums at Sonic HQ -- sent me a message out of the blue!  We got to catching up and he told me that the Mobius Forums were moving tomorrow, and invited me over to look around.  I've been taking a long trip down memory lane tonight, and as other forumers have been sharing memories from the past... I've been touching up an old location in AWTeen where our community at the Mobius Forums met the community here in Activeworlds.

The Sonic HQ Building Ground Zero - AWTeen 2500s 500e

The Sonic HQ Building was built by myself in 2003 as a virtual representation of our website and our community.  Located on some prime real-estate at AWTeen 2500s 500e, the building is as large as a P-10 world and the surrounding builds and additions over the years make it even larger than that. Upon arrival in the building's central room, the familiar theme of Tidal Tempest begins in the background.  The Sonic HQ Logo greets you from all directions, flanked by several now-outdated coronas that shine under the glass ceiling.

The Sonic HQ Building Hotel.  Some familiar names may be seen.

The building featured a room for every major sub-page, with signs that linked to the site acting as a visual directory. Many of these links are now dead, although you can still navigate to them via archive.sonic-hq.net. In-jokes (scootered daisy-heads) dot the halls between the informative rooms.  There were many rec-rooms, an intricate monorail system, and also a hotel for visitors from the forums to leave their mark in the world.  Some went further and made builds out in AWTeen.

Below are some more pictures of the building and neighboring builds.  I'll also list all of the names of hotel guests and builders... hopefully some are familiar! :)

Dr Penguin's hotel room
Takinshoto
CJTails
RonPrower
Srol
Crystaltoad
Gale
Nuchtos
Duo MP
Archonn
A cave system built by forumers
Acrio teh Phox
Rico
Gray the Kitsune
James Crownfur
Saber Mage
Marty SkyWaLker
Dr Penguin
Sonicolas
Sonikorasu
...and more.  I remember other builds, but I wasn't able to locate them.

A secret tent-city in the cave system pictured above.  Several forumers worked together to build an intricate cave system with a number of secret rooms and passages.
A secret scene hidden behind the waterfall.  One of the builders left a note for anyone who wanted to come along and finish the project!
In-jokes and references abound.  The caption there on the left says "FexusFan Empire of Scootering DaisyHeads," and I think I'll just leave that without any commentary. :)
The Download Gallery.  Each sign in these rooms was clickable, and would take you to the associated subpage on the Sonic HQ site.  Each sub-section of the site had a room like this.
One of the less-believable scenes from the Monorail.  I was 12-13 when I created the Sonic HQ building, and I suppose only the mind of a young teenager could justify a monorail running through a glass tube in a lava room. :P  The monorail was fully automated via the warp command and took visitors across the entire building site.

Enough people wanted to build to justify a home-brewed tutorial room.  Notice the lava floor again... not sure how I thought that fit at all, but can you blame a wee tot for that sort of thing? ;)
This has been an enjoyable trip back for me.  I've cleaned up the entry point and fixed some broken images (the original Sonic HQ domain is down so all of the original links in the building are broken).  If you're from the forums and would like to stop by and visit, just take a quick trip over to Activeworlds and navigate to AWTeen 2500s 500e (the teleport window can be accessed from the top menu bar in the AW browser) and enjoy!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

SW City Interactive - The Keep of Fort Masen

I've completed a long-term project at Fort Masen in SW City, and have taken a short video to promote it.  You can view it below:




Learn more about SW City: http://www.swcity.net/www/landing.php
Learn more about SW City Interactive: http://www.interactive.swcity.net

Information about Fort Masen: http://www.swcity.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=SWC.FortMasen

Friday, May 13, 2011

AWG Download - Primitive Road Set

Primitive Road Set (38 AWGs)

This custom set is compatible with the street1.rwx set; it plugs right in!

Many different pieces are available!

Differing road types are also available.

Nice curves!
  • Two Lane Road
    • Includes N/S/E/W orientations for easy placement
    • Includes an intersection with another four lane road
    • Includes 5 variant road paint types
      • None
      • Middle Dash (Default)
      • No Passing Zone
      • Right Lane Passing
      • Left Lane Passing
    • 1 cell road curves in several directions
    • Dead end pieces
    • Shallow (0.05) inclines
    • Steeper (0.1) inclines
  • Four Lane Road
    • Flat Roads going N/S and E/W
    • Intersection with two lane road
    • Intersection with another four lane road
    • Transition piece to convert a two lane road to a four lane road
  • Road Signs
    • Custom stop/street sign piece in N/S/E/W orientation
    • 'SLOW CURVE' sign
    • Default Alphaworld road sign set



DOWNLOAD: Click here to download ha_roadset.zip

SEED OBJECT: Most pieces are centered on the AWG at ground level; incline pieces are centered on the piece at the base ground level (so the piece will spawn in the air where it clicks into another inclined piece)

COORDS: AW 7968.744s 1527.264e 2.0a 179

Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

Blogger Outage

Hey everyone; I've got a few things to send down the pipes since Blogger is restored to full service.  I'll be publishing them throughout the day, so hang tight.  Nothing too big, just a few more AWG downloads and an article. ;)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

AWG Download - Wooden Park Bench

Wooden Park Bench (1 AWG)



  • Wooden Park Bench
    • Custom bench design as displayed in New Arklay City Park
    • One AWG facing North
    • Available only for AWTeen OP

DOWNLOAD: Click here to download parkbench-north.zip

SEED OBJECT: Centered on AWG

COORDS: AWTeen 2819.733s 1801.53e 0.0a 176

Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

AWG Download - Open Air Pavilion

Open Air Pavilion Set (4 AWGs)



  • Open Air Pavilion
    • Includes N/S/E/W orientations for easy placement
    • Open space between support structure and ceiling
    • Unfurnished interior space

DOWNLOAD: Click here to download HA_openairpavl.zip

SEED OBJECT: Centered on AWG

COORDS: AW7954.02s 1494.926e 6.0a 90

Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

AWG Download - Bus Stop

Bus Stop AWG Set (4 AWGs)

  • City Bus Shelter
    • Includes N/S/E/W orientations for easy placement
    • Includes an avatar object with an activate say command
    • Includes a custom bench


    DOWNLOAD: Click here to download HA_busstop.zip

    SEED OBJECT: Centered on AWG

    COORDS: AW 7956.472s 1495.469e 15.7a 90

    Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

    AWG Download - Community Pool

    Bach Zhaa has started a community AWG yard and I've donated a poolset to the effort.  My contribution is a pool and related groups that I built for Dash567 in her Phoenix Coast subdivision a year or two back... the pool was v4s enabled and the site of a good number of parties.

    There are 10 AWGs in the pack, which includes some toys and furniture.  Here's some screencaps below:

    Pool front view

    Pool accessories
    Community Pool AWG Set (10 AWGs)
    • 3 types of pools
      • BASIC: 3x4 pool - landscaped, includes pool ball and diving board
      • BASIC V4s: 3x4 pool - all features above + v4 enabled diving board and water
      • LARGE V4s: 3x6 pool area - all features above plus a service building and avatar objects
    • Pool ball set
    • Diving Board Set
      • BASIC: Diving Board
      • V4s: Includes a negative gravity zone for jumping
    • Hoverchair Set
      • Includes N/S/E/W orientations for easy placement
    DOWNLOAD: Click here to download HA_poolset.zip

    COORDS: 7940s 1512e

    Just save the .zip file to your Activeworlds > Presets folder and you'll be good to use the AWG in Activeworlds.  Good luck!

    Wednesday, May 4, 2011

    Finals are allllllllmooooooosttttt doooooooooonnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeee!!!

    Gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo!

    Sorry, I needed a break. ;)

    Gaming - BuildCity Now Open for 'Off-Season' Play

    Hey all, I've had some people contact me recently letting me know that they were interested in playing Builder's Challenge, and the game has been inactive for some time... so the other day I cleaned off the cobwebs in BuildCity world and have opened it in a setting that I'm tentatively calling the 'off-season.'

    During the off-season:
    • The chief end of the off-season session is to allow players to practice for times of competition.
    • The world is not in active competition. The scoreboard will continue being maintained, but prizes will not be rewarded.
    • Building lots will still be judged as normal, with a score and comments given to the builder.
    • The global bot is not guaranteed to be online 24/7.
    • Requests will be processed slower than usual. Expect turn-around times of up to 2 days during the off-season.
    • Area restrictions are DISABLED -- this means that higher tier areas do not have to be unlocked like they normally do to be built in. However, the player still does have to lock them individually -- they must begin with a plot in Verdant Valley and progress to higher tiers on an individual basis. The only difference now is that they won't have to be held up by other players.

    The global bot's online time will be sporadic until I have completed the semester and returned home. This period will last for about another week, and then the bot should be up 24/7.

    The off-season will end when we're ready to hold another session of Builder's Challenge, at which time existing builds in the world will be wiped. There is no time-table at present for this, as I wish to automate much of the registration and judging process before I hold another session.

    I'll post further updates concerning the off-season to this thread in the AW forums. In the meantime, here are a couple of images from the first plot of the off-season: A Cattle Ranch by Conqueror

    Overview of the Ranch

    Front-view with completed comment card for the builder.
     I'll have some more updates on this after I complete my finals.  In the meantime, give the world a tour.  It's a P-50 world and for the most part it's completely filled out (except for builder plots!)

    Sunday, May 1, 2011

    Silly Parties...

    Let's see how many people we can fit into Hot Hairsquares...  you can find it at 2341s 3625e in Alphaworld.  It's really a rather bizarre place. ;)


     Just having a good time on a Saturday night. :)