Hi folks,
A survey is being run to try to better understand the disposition of the present Uru community toward fan content and fan Ages. There is also some additional information gathered from Age creators, so we'd really appreciate it if you could spend the time to complete it. The survey is short, so it should not take long to complete! Additionally, the survey does not collect any identifiable information, such as email addresses or real names, so please only complete the survey once! The survey will help understand how we need to prioritize development of: the Uru client, Uru localization, Korman, and the 3ds max plugin.
To take the survey click here.
Seeing as there are a lot of data junkies in the community and the survey contains no identifying information, the results are public as well. If you would like to view the results, click here.
Thanks in advance!
URU Survey
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- Councilor of Technical Direction
- Posts: 2180
- Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:45 pm
- MOULa KI#: 23335
- Location: South Georgia
- Contact:
Re: URU Survey
Great idea. Survey filled!
Couple really interesting pieces of info in there:

Couple really interesting pieces of info in there:
Love that one. Shows how unique this community is.37% "have never played any other online game"

Some idiot replied: "Shame on me, I don'treally play online". That would be me. >_>Which shard(s) do you play URU on?
"Places to socialize" comes last, by a big margin. Is it because the City and the other Cyan Ages are enough for this? Or some other reason?What do you think is most important in a good URU fan Age?
Blender 2.49 comes a head of 2.79. What the heck? (not by a big margin, but still) This one baffles me.Which of these tools have you used
I'm surprised to see Max is still used quite a bit.Which of these tools do you use most
Yes, this one please. I know it would be a lot of work. But that would save *so* much time.What, if anything, would improve your experience in using Korman to create ages?
A more accurate representation of Uru's camera, textures, and lighting from inside Blender.
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- Councilor of Technical Direction
- Posts: 2180
- Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:45 pm
- MOULa KI#: 23335
- Location: South Georgia
- Contact:
Re: URU Survey
I'm working on a much better set of visualizations for this data than the crummy little charts made by Google Forms. I've open sourced my code to produce the visualizations, of course, so if anyone wants t play around before the actual final graphs are available... Heh.
Unfortunately, the "lot of work" part of that task will probably be required for Blender 2.80 support. I'm not even sure if Blender supports everything needed for that to happen yet.Aloys wrote:Yes, this one please. I know it would be a lot of work. But that would save *so* much time.What, if anything, would improve your experience in using Korman to create ages?
A more accurate representation of Uru's camera, textures, and lighting from inside Blender.

Re: URU Survey
As I look at custom Ages one recurring problem I see with most of them it the lack of good lighting. And I think part of that comes for the tools, and the time consuming workflow where you have to bake your lightmap test in Uru / make some fixes / rinse repeat. When being able to preview directly in Blender's viewport would be a huge time saver. But yeah, lots of work to get there. And again Blender 2.80 is a concern too.
Re: URU Survey
Me too.Aloys wrote:Blender 2.49 comes a head of 2.79. What the heck? (not by a big margin, but still) This one baffles me.Which of these tools have you used
I agree. If people would get away from 2.49 and start using Korman, they'd get a great deal of better lighting automatically for free. Ask Doobes, he knows!Aloys wrote:As I look at custom Ages one recurring problem I see with most of them it the lack of good lighting. And I think part of that comes for the tools.
Re: URU Survey
"Have you used" is not the same as "Are you using".
I suspect some respondents are no longer creating content.
When they were, they used Blender 2.49.
I suspect some respondents are no longer creating content.
When they were, they used Blender 2.49.
Chacal
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Re: URU Survey
Agreed, I think that data is expansive and really interesting.
I wonder if Uru could do with some better socialization features. Like, some bulletin board where people can propose exploring age X on day Y, and people can subscribe and get an idea of how many people will be there...
I also suspect Myst fans are on average a bit more reluctant towards change.
As for visual quality... The ideal solution for iteration speed would be to somehow connect Plasma itself as a renderer to Blender (maybe through some plResManager hackery), and rely on dynamic lighting whenever possible instead of constantly baking everything. Needless to say this is a lot harder to do than it seems.
Heh, I replied MOULa, DI and Gehn, but overall I don't play online either (I barely start the offline game anymore).Aloys wrote:Some idiot replied: "Shame on me, I don'treally play online". That would be me. >_>
Dunno, but it's a bit sad. I am under the impression that multiplayer exploration isn't really the norm. Maybe it's due to the single-player nature of the game, coupled with the lack of people playing on fan shards (or spread too thin over all the Ages available).Aloys wrote:"Places to socialize" comes last, by a big margin. Is it because the City and the other Cyan Ages are enough for this? Or some other reason?
I wonder if Uru could do with some better socialization features. Like, some bulletin board where people can propose exploring age X on day Y, and people can subscribe and get an idea of how many people will be there...
This, and also some people work for years on their Age, and don't want to risk migrating their Blender file from PyPRP to Korman.Chacal wrote:"Have you used" is not the same as "Are you using".
I suspect some respondents are no longer creating content.
When they were, they used Blender 2.49.
I also suspect Myst fans are on average a bit more reluctant towards change.
As for visual quality... The ideal solution for iteration speed would be to somehow connect Plasma itself as a renderer to Blender (maybe through some plResManager hackery), and rely on dynamic lighting whenever possible instead of constantly baking everything. Needless to say this is a lot harder to do than it seems.
Re: URU Survey
I voted “socializing” for the favourite aspect of Uru, but ranked it last for the fan ages. In fact Uru is more or less the only online game where I care about socialising.
The rationale is that I have around twenty avatars across all (save one) available shards, so there’s little left for exploring and solving puzzles for me. And I moderate the AGM
Between Ae’gura, the hoods and the pubs, I think Cyan’s ages have enough venues for socialising, so in fan-made ages that’s the last aspect I’m interested in.
I meant to propose explore-an-age events for a while, but never did, mainly because I can’t think of a way of doing that without the pirate shard devotees trying to steal the show.
Also, I’m not the one who voted “all of them, at some point” for the macOS wrapper question
It would apply, but I picked PlayOnMac as my current favourite.
The rationale is that I have around twenty avatars across all (save one) available shards, so there’s little left for exploring and solving puzzles for me. And I moderate the AGM

Between Ae’gura, the hoods and the pubs, I think Cyan’s ages have enough venues for socialising, so in fan-made ages that’s the last aspect I’m interested in.
I meant to propose explore-an-age events for a while, but never did, mainly because I can’t think of a way of doing that without the pirate shard devotees trying to steal the show.
Also, I’m not the one who voted “all of them, at some point” for the macOS wrapper question

Deep Island #194197, MOULa #46116, Gehn #137074, Minkata #132812.
Gahreesenomee biv keneet pishoeet b’set!
My macOS wrappers, Fan Age Expeditions, tools and other stuff.
Gahreesenomee biv keneet pishoeet b’set!
My macOS wrappers, Fan Age Expeditions, tools and other stuff.
Re: URU Survey
It's always the same problem: we simply lack content. Back when Cyan was supposed to release new areas every month Uru was all about exploring, these days not so much.I voted “socializing” for the favourite aspect of Uru, but ranked it last for the fan ages. (...) there’s little left for exploring and solving puzzles for me.
IC Roleplay would be great; but to a certain extent this is also tied to content. It's hard to be IC when there's nothing new to talk about.. Which is why I find it so important that fan Ages stay very close to the Uru canon. Else why bother with Uru at all? We could create maps for any random game.
That make sense, that's a bit sad though, but that makes sense.re: Blender 2.49
I suspect some respondents are no longer creating content.
When they were, they used Blender 2.49.
Re: URU Survey
True. Just a limitation of trying to make the survey not ask a million variations.Chacal wrote:"Have you used" is not the same as "Are you using".
I suspect some respondents are no longer creating content.
When they were, they used Blender 2.49.
Or even just a usable chat. The KI needs a complete overhaul. It was designed before a lot of UI was standardized.Sirius wrote:I wonder if Uru could do with some better socialization features. Like, some bulletin board where people can propose exploring age X on day Y, and people can subscribe and get an idea of how many people will be there...
I suspect many of them are, although so far this survey suggests less of them are resistant to change than previously assumed... at least in some ways. In others, confirmed.Sirius wrote:This, and also some people work for years on their Age, and don't want to risk migrating their Blender file from PyPRP to Korman.
I also suspect Myst fans are on average a bit more reluctant towards change.
Definitely harder.Sirius wrote:As for visual quality... The ideal solution for iteration speed would be to somehow connect Plasma itself as a renderer to Blender (maybe through some plResManager hackery), and rely on dynamic lighting whenever possible instead of constantly baking everything. Needless to say this is a lot harder to do than it seems.

I don't do it much these days, either, except in very targeted archaeological investigations, but even so that's the reason I'm here for Uru and it always has been. They got my vote even if it's not my primary activity these days.Korovev wrote:The rationale is that I have around twenty avatars across all (save one) available shards, so there’s little left for exploring and solving puzzles for me.
I agree 100%.Aloys wrote:It's always the same problem: we simply lack content. Back when Cyan was supposed to release new areas every month Uru was all about exploring, these days not so much.I voted “socializing” for the favourite aspect of Uru, but ranked it last for the fan ages. (...) there’s little left for exploring and solving puzzles for me.
IC Roleplay would be great; but to a certain extent this is also tied to content. It's hard to be IC when there's nothing new to talk about.. Which is why I find it so important that fan Ages stay very close to the Uru canon. Else why bother with Uru at all? We could create maps for any random game.