Tuesday Updates in Arklay

Hey guys, I've done some more building in Arklay world and I'll be posting photos up here each day that I make progress.  We're working in Arklay world to build up a map to test Droog's upcoming paintball bot.  In addition to this, Droog is working on the paintball bot tonight and I'm eager to hear of his progress. 

Remember, Droog is interested in feedback and ideas from the community.  You can reply to his request in this thread.

World Overview, facing southeast.

The empty interior of a warehouse in the southern part of the world.

A yard of shipping crates in the northern part of the world.

Along with these locations I've built, I've also worked some secret paths through the surrounding cliffs and across the rooftops.  Ideally, I would like players to have access to many areas of the world and use their environment to their advantage.   Hopefully I'll have some more done tomorrow!

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. :)

Building - Basic Terrain Manipulation

For private world owners, manipulating the terrain is very simple and can go a long way to adding character to virtual landscapes and scenes.  Terrain editing used to be a caretaker-only right, but as of Active Worlds 4.2 Build 1015 can be given to users through the World Rights list. Public worlds also have limited terrain editing abilities, and rely on bots such as Demeter to allow builders to manipulate terrain on their property.

This tutorial explains simple terrain editing for users who can edit terrain directly.  Terrain in Active Worlds is manipulated at the intersection of coordinate grids.  You can view the coordinate grid by pressing F10 in Active Worlds.  This is the easiest visual way to distinguish between different areas terrain, especially if they have the same terrain texture or are on the same elevation.

A Scene from AWGate...

This is what I like to see!!!

If you follow the blog here regularly, you have probably read my rant regarding the lack of use of some of the more obvious visual cues, such as this GateKeepers help desk.  After dropping into AWGate today, I just had to take a picture of this, because this is exactly what I like to see.  Not only is someone hanging out by the desk... but someone sitting there, legs crossed, just waiting to help a new user. The R2-D2 is a nice touch too. ;)

Nice, guys.  Keep it up! :P

(Also, I'll be posting some more ideas tonight about AWGate after a productive conversation last night at the AW Town Hall Meeting.)