CAV Shop to be released next month

Stacee posted an update on the AW Forums today concerning the upcoming CAV Shop and the current state of 5.2:

I wanted to start a thread to help clear up some of the confusion and open up the stage for some constructive input.

First off, the release of 5.2 is in two parts. It was released this month, minus the CAV Shop Items buying system, so that we could test the new boost engine and all the other additions like global chat channels and various new settings and tweaks and clean up any bugs that have been missed in the initial beta testing. You have all been doing a tremendous job, already spotting several bugs that can be addressed and really breaking in the new AW release.

What about the CAV Shop Items buying system? That will begin next month. It's the reason many things you came to use and love were taken out in this initial CAVtemplate. We needed to make a simpler layout for testing purposes and we needed to have items for you to test buying that we know should work. This will all make it easier to test that the buying system is working correctly without having to work out bugs that the artists created (yes, we have our own bugs we create).

You've already noticed some changes in how the CAV window works. We realized how confusing the separation of clothing from their textures was in the older CAV window. The new system tries to group similar items together, so things like eyes, lips, cheeks, etc no longer are on their own, but are now grouped under the head with all their attached textures. Same for clothing. You'll no longer have to put on a shirt and then scroll down looking for the texture that applies to what you just put on. The options will appear right underneath (+/-). Hair has also been gloriously simplified in that fashion. You'll also notice that there are now two "type" categories: human and anime. Because of the buying system, it will be possible not only to buy clothing for these categories, but also to buy more "types" as they become available. It's going to open up alot of opportunity for individuality and style.

That being said, the older items that you loved will make a return appearance. In fact, you may even see some items that got lost from the first CAV system finally resurface. (This is actually the third CAV redo, for those keeping track)

The past few months I've gained alot of experience on creating CAV pieces and learning the new CAV layout and the Shop Item entry system. It's been an eye-opener for sure. This is where I want to open up the floor for ideas: what would you like to see that is new or different in the CAV system? I've already created new items that will hit the stores eventually, but I welcome more ideas. Pictures would be incredibly helpful to me, so if you have them, share. While I can't guarantee an idea will make it into the CAV system, it may inspire something similar. What would be cool for the future?

I've got some strong opinions on the micro-transactions (particularly how to make them successful) and our place concerning them... I may write up a bit of a rant on that later.  For now, let's just wait and see where this goes... glad to see they're going forward with it. :)

Noticeboard: AWExpo Cancelled, Texpo Announced

A bit of ruckus was caused earlier this week when GSK announced that in a joint decision with AWI, the 2011 AWExpo will be cancelled.  The AWExpo had a rough start out of the gate, and despite general community support the struggles came to a climax last week when a vandal took advantage of a Caretaker's privilege password to damage the world.  The Expo world closed in the following days and GSK looked to step down -- even making plans for a successor so that the expo could continue... but AWI did not accept the proposal, and thus the event will be ending.

Builders who have already made a booth have until Monday to save their progress before the world OP is closed.

In light of this decision, citizen Xandrah (Xandrake on the forums) has offered their private, P-100 sized world (RF3D world) up for a community expo that AWI won't be hosting.  The premise of this new event is essentially the same as the AWExpo, with the only difference being that the event dates have been bumped to mid-July and the attendance will likely be lower since AWI has pulled support from an Expo this year.

ActiveWorlds Technology Expo Dates

• June 30th - July 10th
• Registration is open; telegram Xandrah in-world
• Booth Building is Open
• Building Guidelines:
• If you have a plot please only build within your plot space.
• Please make sure your booth is to do with Active Worlds.
• If your booth is not about Active Worlds it will be deleted.
• July 11th
• Texpo Begins
• July 16th
• Texpo Ends

I am not sure yet if AWBuilder will be participating in the Texpo as I have a rather full schedule leading up to the event, but if I do I'll announce it here.  Hoping to see some good things come of it, and we wish it well. :)

Noticeboard: WTV Opens, Help Wanted

WTV opened today after some initial planning by Watson and the staff of WolfW1 world.  As announced today in the Activeworlds Forums, Shadow Creature and Watson. plans to build the station up in the coming weeks, and is looking for helpers and volunteers.  I dealt quite a bit in AW television back in the day as a senior staff member at VWTV... and know firsthand that there's a lot of work to be done on an endeavor such as this, so feel free to offer your skillset because they could surely use actors, builders, designers, writers... maybe even an audience member!

WTV takes after the tv stations of the past by using rotating jpgs to create a 'slideshow.'  In AW, this is achieved by applying an update parameter to the picture command.  Simply apply the following code to the action line of any object that accepts the picture command, and you'll see the image below:

Something unique that WTV appears to be attempting is that they are looking to run multiple channels of their programming at the same time.  Hopefully they'll be busy enough to justify the many channels!  AWBuilder wishes this new endeavor luck, and encourages any interested in participating to visit WolfW1 World in Activeworlds or the website at http://wolfw1.net/.

(Note: If you're viewing this on the frontpage with the related TV post, the image above may be breaking because the script is attempting to run twice on the same page. Simply read this post on its own page to correct the issue.)

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.

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. ;)

Legion promoted to ActiveWiki Administration

We don't post a ton of news out of the ActiveWiki these days, but today I'd like to welcome Legion to our team.  If you haven't taken a look at the recent changes page lately, you wouldn't know about this... but we've been dealing with a pretty horrible spambot problem for a few weeks now at least.  It had gotten so bad that GSK has implemented a protocol for deleting and banning these new accounts/pages on sight, but they post with such frequency that it's a bit of a chore to cleanup if one of the administrators ignores the page for more then a day.

Since GSK and I are the only currently active community administrators, bringing another guy onto the team was desirable and Legion stepped up and volunteered before it had even come to asking for help. :)

From what I understand of the problem it's a pretty fix if someone who knew what they were doing had access to the wiki backend.  Unfortunately neither of those conditions are currently met, so we have to deal with this on the frontside.  :(

At any rate, feel free to welcome Legion to our team by leaving a comment on his talk page.

Submissions for April Newsletter

So long as I'm blogging, I may as well contribute my articles to our monthly newsletter!  I'd like to try to submit two each month for as long as I'm keeping AWBuilder up and running -- one commentary and one tutorial.  Right now, I'm leaning towards "From an era gone by..." as the commentary and "Tutorial - Navigating the ActiveWiki" as the tutorial.  I think those are both pretty solid articles and would be good for the context of the newsletter.

If you guys have any suggestions or other articles you'd like to see go up, let me know!  Otherwise, it'll probably be these two. :)

Noticeboard: Pelican3D Sales to Support Japan Recovery

Link: http://forums.activeworlds.com/showthread.php?t=15052



Yesterday Pelican of Pelican3d.com announced that through April 1, 100% of model sales will be going to support the tragedy in Japan.  Donations will be sent through the Japanese Red Cross Society.  He also noted that you could donate directly by telephone at 1-800-733-2767 or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 for a $10 donation.

I'm sure by now that we've all seen video of the earthquake, tsunami, and now a potential nuclear crisis.  The human toll in this is enormous, and it's extremely encouraging to see people stepping up to organize and assist in the recovery.  Please help where you can, because even a few dollars adds up to quite a lot if everyone pitches in. :)

Noticeboard: Feb-March Yellow Gazette Published

The Yellow Gazette for Feb-March is online at http://activeworlds.com/newsletter/yellow/

Projects like the Gazette are one of the marks of a healthy community; where projects can be found in the hands and influence of dedicated world users who take it upon themselves to make their community a little better.  It's nice when the world leadership doesn't have to do all of the work! :)

It is the tendency of a community to only lament on the loss of a project after it's contributors have moved on to other interests, so if you like the Yellow Gazette be sure to let them know and show your support!

In-world offices of the Yellow Gazette (Teleport there now!)

For me in particular, the Build of the Month section featured a couple of interesting locations that detail some methods on game-making and environments that may be of interest to readers here.  Another article of interest explains the numbering system for primitive objects.  The prim objects were numbered in such a way to be intuitive and easier to remember after a simple introduction to the numbering system, so if you have a hard time with prims this may be helpful!

If you do follow-up and visit the Gazette, I'd like to know if any of the articles that I didn't mention caught your eye.  I'd like to see how our interests compare/contrast.  You can let me know by just leaving a comment below! :)

Rescheduling Class to next weekend

Hey guys!  It turns out that today may not have been the best day to do this, so we're going to look at next weekend... perhaps after Byte's class. ;)

In the meantime I'll make it up to you by posting up some examples this week!  Apologies for the delay.

GSK: "Suspension of AWTex Service"

GSK reported on the Activeworlds Forums today that his remote texture-hosting service AWTex would be suspending service until further notice.  He did not cite a reason, but did explain that a plan was in place for such an event that would allow existing content to remain available while suspending new further input from users.

As of this announcement, existing AWTex uploads should continue working properly and should not cause problems in-world.

Link: http://forums.activeworlds.com/blog.php?b=1246

Interactive Building Class: 5pm VRT on Saturday

Hey guys!  I just wanted to check in and say that, if all goes well, I'll be able to host an Interactive Building class this Saturday at 5pm VRT!

I also wanted to make a correction... that Byte's class will be taking place next weekend, not this one.  I'll try to get a full post up later... had a bomb of a paper due today. :(

Later!

AWI: Alphaworld Maintenance Wednesday

From Flagg:

AlphaWorld (AW) will be offline for maintenance on Wednesday March 2nd from 12pm to 2pm VRT (9am to 11am EST).

Just helping to get the word out here.  Doubt this will effect too many people, but if it does you should check out some of the other building worlds in the meantime.  Yellow is doing really well these days. :)