Where we are and where we’re going…
Truthfully if you’ve of told me six months ago we’d actually end up doing this, I’d laugh. So much has happened this year both in my personal life and on SL that made me question if we’d ever be able to seriously tackle this project. Not to mention emotions being high this past spring and it just wasn’t a good time. Now, we’re in a far better spot, my real life has allowed me to take charge of a project like this, and we’re finally “in the kitchen” on making this work.
Why a roadmap? Wasn’t this supposed to just be friends goofing off?
It was! And it may very well still be; the purpose of the roadmap is to have set “start” and “end” points for what we want to see depending on public response and community participation. We may very well stop after Phase 1 if there isn’t enough interest for Phase 2, for example.
But having a set start and endpoint allows us to pace ourselves as a team and decide where we want to stop. It also gives the community something to look forward too if the project “takes off.”
Still, we are realists; we may very well never get to the point of one full sim, let alone multiple, so if that doesn’t materialize, then we make the most of Phase 1 while acknowledging the limitations prohibiting us from going further.
GPHUD?
We evaluated other options including BlackBox and determined GPHud was the best possible for our current scale and operations. As Phase 3 outlines, if we ever get “that big” we can re-evaluate an entirely new HUD or further optimizations of GPHUD. I’d like to briefly thank a few people involved in making GPHUD work for us:
Samuel (okdamsam) & Rosey Voxel – HUD Development
Werescrib & Taggart – WEG D6 Proposal
Victoria (hooked dagger) – A very compelling 2D10 system that we ended up not using. But the effort and love was clearly there and she deserves a shoutout even if one of the tough calls early in a sims lifecycle is determining what gets axed.
WEG D6?
We currently plan on implementing combat along the lines of WEG D6 (West End Games D6). This’ll be a comparatively simple, heavily automated system in-line with the community’s wishes of avoiding a bogged down, heavily rules-based system. This will be the framework for PvP; For PVE, Game Masters (our version of Storytellers/mods) will be free to add rules to keep things fresh.
How will Factions and Antagonists work?
We’re taking a slightly different approach for Phase 1. There won’t be traditional “factions”; only station roles and player groups. This is to give our dev team time to focus on more important things like combat, fixing HUD issues, etc. Players are obviously free to associate however they wish.
Antagonists are harder by the nature of being on the confines of a space station; we have a few space pirates already, but we don’t expect them to take a major role until late phase 1 or early phase 2 as things like a pirate cove/outpost become map possibilities. Obviously we can adjust that as we need to, and we plan on using game master NPC’s to fill in for traditional antagonist characters as required.
Space travel and combat?
That’s right! We do plan on implementing it using scale models and a “layout” of the system on the sim. Specifics are to be determined, and I can’t promise specifics yet; but this is absolutely something we want to do. This is a space sim.
Lore? Relation to New Frontiers?
It’s no secret this project is a love letter to what we wanted New Frontiers to be. Some had initially proposed spinning off lore, rewriting massive amounts of it, or scrapping stuff; but frankly, I think that’s disrespectful. We can acknowledge where we came from, credit those deserving it, and move forward. I have talked with New Frontiers’ ownership and they’re aware of the project and understanding of the lore-sharing. New Frontiers lore, and our new lore, is and always will be Creative Commons licensed, allowing others to freely use it.
How will it be funded? Rentals?
The homestead is stable using me and Taggart’s funds, either from elsewhere in Second Life (thank you, Morgantown renters!) or individual income. We want to see where sim popularity goes before committing to anything larger. Due to limitations of a Homestead, we do not plan on offering rentals on the homestead. Individual players may be given exemptions for locations that drive roleplay such as businesses or spaceships. We’re playing it by ear right now.
Donations are welcome and when/if we’re looking at a full sim, we can absolutely look into player rentals as a means of funding the sim. Obviously none of us are in this to make money so it’s not a top priority.
Can I help?
Yes! Absolutely. We need experienced GPHUD developers, storytellers/gamemasters, people willing to help with lore, graphic design folks, and more. Ask me if you’d like to help.
We also need IC-division leads for the station’s Science and Engineering/Operations divisions.
The Team
The following people deserve thanks for being involved in development, whether actively coding the HUD, helping with graphic design, or just spitballing ideas. Once we get out of initial development I expect the team to shrink, so those helping during these early beginnings expecting nothing in return absolutely deserve praise:
AbelShift
Aurora Guffey
Avii Cinderfeather
Donkleberry
Fjann/funnylilcreachure
Grunt
Hooked Dagger/Victoria
Izzi
Rosey
Vinhi
Samuel
Sierra
Werescrib
Svir/Kovda
Taggart
VioletGhost
TipsyPanda
Tokeli
Kohut/Tyler
Valerya
Vryena/Serrano
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