Nexus Co-Op World?

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:15 pm

I miss all our joint projects like the Back and Forth Giveaway and the monthly giveaways. :3

So, I know everyone is super busy right now and what not, but I have an idea for a summer "event/project," and I wanted to see if there was any interest.

What do you guys think about working on a kind of Co-op world for the Nexus. Like- we could work together to make up species, maps, and any other useless but wonderful information that we want. Specifically, I thought it would be fun if there were ways to submit a species template and have other people come up with info for it, or write up info and have people draw up a template for it- depending on what strikes your fancy.

And we could go beyond dragons if we wanted, and come up with more humanoid things that could serve as candidates.

And since this world would be a combination of Nexus effort (assuming there is interest, of course), I was thinking that this world could be open to any of our uses (within the Nexus). As in, whatever species we came up with for the Co-op world would be the joint property of the community- meaning we could all make characters/bonds/with them without having to ask or pick up from a specific clutch.

What do you guys think? Does it sound interesting? Worth our time? Fun? In need of adjustments?

Post by **StarFyre** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:14 pm

Sounds fun to me - count me in!

I've been on a bit of a world-building kick lately -- to the point where I've order some 5 inch round wood balls with the intent of modeling Nyracii (the world Akelara is on) in clay then painting it pretty colors. Because I fail at 2D maps, and don't like the results of those fractal-based programs =P

I'm up for anything, really =P So long as I don't have to draw 2D maps from my head.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:51 pm

I'd like to see what comes of this!

Myself I *have* enjoyed the fractal programs - enough that my latest world which hasn't yet been completely finished (because I'm adapting some game stats to it) is called Dragondeep, and is almost entirely *randomly generated* from 7th Sanctum stuff

Even though we've already got worlds like Icarus, Danach, Alskyr and such... I like the idea of a new one with different creatures.

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:36 pm

^ ^ Yay! I'm glad that there is some interest.

And seeing Yakima's site with Alskyr really got this idea in my head, Shard. I really love what you guys did with that, but I totally missed out on it, and I think it would be fun to come up with some new stuff.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:54 pm

Oooh, ooh!

We're creating a world, right? We should be the gods of the world.

For instance if I were to be the one helping to make maps, I'd be the Earth or maybe Mountain goddess

hehehehe.

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:07 pm

I have some...er...left over species that you can use. Truthfully, their are some that you could use that were originally going to be on Treval. I have to many species on Treval and I have the main ones I want.

Here were the ones I'm willing to "part" with (I really haven't delved into any info for them so you wouldn't be stepping on my toes, so-to-speak).

Makan-dal (NO IMAGE...it was the ice one...i'm still looking for it)

Asper-dal

Furry Dragon (? Pet-type)

Saurake (my snake things)

Tajsar

The only reason I'm offering them as possibilities is because, like I said, I already have 6 main species on Treval and most/all of these were drawn for the Dragon Exchange way back when. *nods*

Gods would be fun...of course, after reading the Percy Jackson books and all that stuff about Greek gods...heh...yeah...*pats her favorites, Hermes and Apollo)

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:54 pm

I think we have to have the ferret-snake-dragons

hehehe!

Ooooh I wonder... maybe they could be like the weinerdogs of the world: they're made for hunting in burrows, or something.

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:57 pm

lol use what you want. I probably won't contribute much except these being that I'm trying to get my main sites back up...and Falas running...

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:37 pm

I think it'd be cool to do this! Maybe we should start with a theme... er, maybe not in that sense, but a basic layout for creatures? Or a couple basic layouts? You know, like every limbed thing on earth seems to have four limbs, even if they are vestigial or whatever. And bugs with their thoraxes and whatever (hurp durp, my biologist father would be embarrassed for me here). It'd be neat to have things cohesive, in any case.

Post by **StarFyre** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:55 pm

Well, my main issue with fractal maps is that I can never get a render or style that I like, probably because I've never used the programs much. I don't have an issue with using the rendered maps =P I can just never render one I'm satisfied with.

Also, I do love the idea of us being the gods of the land ^^ No idea what I'll exactly contribute yet, but at least I'll have time to do so!

On the topic of the other community projects that've been done, to me they almost act as a sort of time capsule, an example of how the Nexus (or a subset of it, at least) thought at a specific time. It's kinda interesting.

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 8:47 pm

OOO! Yakima! Those dragons are awesome! If we could work them into the world, that would be sweet. :3 I really love that furry one, so adorable!

And Shard, I definitely like your idea of being the gods. XD That sounds fun and possibly hilarious.
So, as far as the fractal maps go- would you have time/want to make some for this? Cause I think that would be awesome.

Jkat, I really like your idea too. We should determine some basics for the species for sure. Any ideas on that one, guys? I tend to lean towards fewer limbs just for ease of drawing, but I am open to anything. ^ ^ It might be kind of interesting to have some body segmentation like insects do...

Post by **Dray** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:28 am

The thing with Alskyr is that everyone started off saying "okay, there'll be land dragons, sea dragons, and gryphons! Roll out people!" so everything stayed relatively the same. Sure, some were bipedal and some had horns in strange places (lol) but the basic premise of 'pern-like dragon' made things cohesive.

I think that the challenge with starting a brand new world without those thoughts in place, and in using leftovers, is that either we're going to go in every direction at once, or we're going to have to follow Yakima's lead and make creatures that look similar to hers, since she set a precedent.

I guess it depends on if everyone wants to see a cohesive world with creatures that relate to one another from one landmass (or sea mass, or air mass, whatever) to another, or if you would rather have a planet ruled by gods who magic whatever they want into existence! XD Either way, or something in between, could be interesting.

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:06 pm

Well, we could have more than one evolutionary path... as on Earth when we have insects, fish, mammals, etc. Maybe we could class Yakima's dragons (since they pretty much all follow the general dragon design) as one evolution branch, and then come up with a couple other ones. After that- we can adjust the body designs in plenty of different ways. And "god-magic" a couple extra-weird/interesting species too if we choose. That way, we aren't completely limited, but the planet has some coherence to it. What do you think?

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:18 pm

lol or you don't even have to use mine.

I won't be upset if you don't. I have to cut down on websites/agencies as is so I won't be able to start my own place from this world anyway. If you use them, fine - if you want to use them as bases for something, fine (like take the asper-dal one but tweak it into something different). *shrugs*

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:28 pm

I was thinking maybe we can each "bless" creatures with an element of our choice, modifying something that would normally be like an earth-type creature but give it aspects useful to that element.

So that ferret/snake thing, and earth: it would have burrowing claws, perhaps affinity toward stones/gems/faultlines (kinda like the Miner daemons maybe).

That same creature blessed by an Air goddess: it might have a wispy, feathery coating which allows it to fly, cause winds, etc.

That might leave it up to us to design some basic creatures, "feline", "equine", "dolphin", etc - and then add features based on whether we want to make them a flier, swimmer or whatnot.

Post by **DragonFlight** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:26 am

This looks like fun. I've been on kind of a world-builder kick myself though mostly for some game stuff I've been working on.

My first question is really.... How technical is this going to be? Like, if I sat down and mucked around with a map (assuming a globe) with a certain scale and charted geography and air flow and ocean currents for temperature bands and stuff - are we talking like that? Or are you looking more ad hoc?

I've been reading my old-old-edition D&D Worldbuilder's Guide. XD

----
The one I'm working on is my personal one right now, so it's in the 'unusual' spectrum and doesn't follow all the standard rules but it got me on a good start. (Examples very cartoony because it was easier on the computer that way, I'm working on zoomed in paper bits now but that goes slooowwww cause I'm indecisive.)

Phase 1 - I rearranged the globe grid to be flat because this world /is/ flat, with the assumption the edges are somewhere out in the big blue part outside the triangle grid. Based on my scaling for each hex, the upper right large island is about half the size of the continental USA. The safely navigate-able area is a smidge larger than the surface area of Earth, with slightly less actual land and more water.

Phase 2 - This one is an accumulation of some geographical features - plate movements (yes, it has those but for a non-physics reason :3 - green lines with pink movement arrows), resulting chasms (purple lines), mountain ranges (red lines, more lines means altitude/height spikes), extinct (pinkish hollow triangles) and active (solid red triangles) volcanoes. This also shows the elementally affected regions, which augments the determination of how weather functions in this environment.

Phase 3 - Hid the geography and the elemental lines, produced the water currents (dark blue), air currents (light blue), and a more unique phenomenon, the air movement of the upper atmosphere where it meets the currents in the 'sea of clouds', the neon green monstrosity in the middle there.

Combining this info lets me zoom in to determine local weather and landscape, and all sorts of fun stuff.
----

Sorry for the interlude....we're talking like this level of detail maybe ya? ^_~ I wanna get my hands dirty, even if it's just thinking stuff up for other people. XD

delyar · Post by **delyar** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:11 pm

I think the best way to get the most people involved is to throw together general "genus" ideas, kind of like prompts. For example, Alskyr had "sea dragon", "aerial dragon" and "gryphons". Or, like Shard said, general species types like "canine", "feline" etc. Then everyone would have their own species variations, possibly with abilities changed etc.

DF, funny you should mention that as I was totally doing some worldbuilding myself today in class.... with tectonic plate movements. Then I realized I'd forgotten what vertical sliding plates (ie one over the other) did to the ocean. I was totally miffed that I couldn't finish my map, haha.

Post by **DragonFlight** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:20 pm

Hehehe. Noice. :)

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:13 pm

Sorry that I was MIA for a while- I just finished Spring Break. I was down at the Grand Canyon volunteering for NPS the whole week. Cold camping and no internet, but it was beautiful and totally worth it. :3

I think Delyar's point about coming up with "genus" prompts is a good one.

And Shard, I like your idea as well. Maybe the "god-modifications" could be a little more expansive than elements though- depending on what we are all the "gods" of. Maybe you were going for that, but just used elements as examples... but yeah, I think that could be fun.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:16 pm

Perhaps, a "blessing and curse" round - where you can choose one, the other, both or neither on each type of creature? Kinda like fairy godmothers

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:59 pm

Oooo!!! I like that, Shard!

So, do we maybe want to start figuring out some basics?
Like- does anyone have name ideas? ^ ^

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:20 pm

Is anyone still interested in this?

**poke**

^ ^

Post by **Dray** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:37 pm

I'm pretty busy right now, though it does sound interesting! How did people go about making Alskyr? We could probably take notes from that!

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:39 pm

That's a good idea, Dray. I'm still sad I missed out on all that fun.

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:00 pm

Heh... a good bit of what fueled the creation of Alskyr was Anne McCaffrey and her lawyers going batshit crazy on the Pern fan communities. Same with Danach, the various Niduses, and a few personal projects like my Ayden. While I remember being intrigued by it all, I didn't personally participate in the major projects. I remember being angry... I was almost done with Aster, damn it. XD

I think other shared worlds like Icarus and Nemista were formed after the insanity died down a bit, and Icarus might still have some forum notes to study. Honestly though... once someone initiates the shadows of a world foundation and keeps the energy going, shared world-building really takes care of itself. Consider it like a forum roleplay or a wiki.

I think the main obstacle for any shared world project right now may be the combination of everyone being used to their own personal projects and the recent long wane in forum activity. A good bit of what fueled the old worlds was a feeling of urgent necessity to keep something alive. It might be tough to keep the energy going, but I wish you guys luck. =)

Post by **StarFyre** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:39 pm

I'm still here and willing to toss ideas in!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:46 pm

I was (sort of) around during the time when Alskyr was being created. I wasn't personally a part of it, dually because I was juts a lurker at the time and also because I'd lost steam with Pern and didn't feel like jumping into something similar.

I'd love to see this happen and I'd be willing to participate if we did get it going, but I also worry that like the old saying goes, "We're a room full of scientists and not enough Igors."

We're all a bunch of creative minds with different interests and this could end up being really, really complicated!

IMHO, the best way to start the ball rolling would be to bat around the idea of creating something that hasn't been done, or not fully been done before. Our steam got flowing for Alskyr because Anne was being a butt and we wanted to make a Pern-like world that was legally distinct from hers, with our own personal twists on it (I'm just stating what I remember people saying about the project). In short, it was something we all wanted but didn't have.

Here's some things I'd really like to see in a world (but I'm also willing to compromise on if people disagree! ;D )
- That world map of Alskyr where all the locations were placed on it was awesome. I love the idea of a uniform map that we all use.
- A shared, editable template for bonding or species? I know this idea was tossed around before and I don't think anything ever came of it, but I really think it would be cool, especially with all of us on the same world.

We could all add our own personal touches but have it be essentially similar.
- Maybe if we were seriously getting this going, we could have someone create a sub-forum for the discussion? That way topics and discussions could be organized easier, like specific threads for each issue?

/ramble

Post by **StarFyre** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 7:04 pm

erinnyes wrote: "We're a room full of scientists and not enough Igors."

I've never heard that saying before, but I love it. Totally awesome ^_^

Maybe we should start with a vague concept, then have Shard (or whoever) create the map then work from there to flesh everything out? By vague idea I mean something like "a planet of ice, with a temperate band around the equator" or "a world with little free-standing water" or something like that.

From there, map gets made and we agree/disagree as we are wont until we're satisfied.

Then we take that map and pose the question "What would life be like there?" and each take turns answering it and building on/tweaking/discussing each others answers until we come to a compromise where no one is totally happy but no one's pissed (because that's the only sort of compromise possible =P )

How's that for a general concept?

Post by **Dray** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 7:10 pm

Me, I would like to see something that's fairly uniform in dragon species. They don't all have to be exactly the same from weyr/nidus/place to place, but having two or three species of dragons that have a fairly ubiquitous set of traits, breeding/rearing/bonding habits, etc. across the board would be really nice.

A world in which whatever species are made wind up running a spectrum in levels of dominance around bond species -- they aren't all just tools or dragons that need to bond in order to live, y'know? From place to place it would be neat to see cultural differences. Bonding is still important across the board but there are some pretty drastically different reasons for it.

Humanoids in about the same number of different species as dragons. Perhaps the potential for interbreeding with dragon species amongst one another, ala Nexus mutts, and for humanoids to do the same amongst one another, but a stigma against it? (Again, having some level of flexibility so that it's not an 'every single country on this planet thinks the same way about it' moment would be really neat.)

Religion, technology, and magic in differing amounts; dragons that don't have set abilities but instead the potential to learn things over time. Different languages!

I do like the idea of having a template base that can be modified! Maybe a pool of them depending on what we're going for (different poses for different personalities?)

aireona93 · Post by **aireona93** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 7:58 pm

Erinnyes, the map and template sound like great ideas! I could definitely go for that, and I think that shared templates would help us keep our species designs from being too crazy.

Starfyre, I like your plan of attack. Coming up with the base rules for the world first is definitely a good idea. Hm. I should do some research. Do we want a kind of atypical world setting, or something more standard? And should we go for separate islands like Alskyr or something more like countries? I personally would go for larger continents with several cultures/species living on them... that would make for more interaction, I think. But I am pretty open. ^ ^

Dray, I love all your ideas. I think we should definitely try to get some fun details going, if we can. And I really support the idea of dragons that don't need to bond... maybe we could even have some species that can't naturally bond. Different languages sound really fun too! I have tried to come up with a few, which is not something I would expect anyone to do for this world... but it is so hard! Makes me really appreciate what Tolkien did. XD They do add a certain amount of "realness" to a world, I think.

This post was really formulaic... sorry. You guys all have so many good ideas though! I am excited.