Community Nexus

[nathan2055]

First of all, building a Nexus GUI is a tad tougher than writing up a patch for that book, which could be done in a few seconds. Secondly, how could moving the Fan D'ni Locations to a different Nexus we have written break IC stories? With some time, I could think up an IC story to get the job done. Anyway, people would be doing a lot of linking with this idea (especially people who didn't realize an Age was part of the cavern instead of it's own Age, as not everyone sits and reads all the journals), it'd make it a lot easier on the general public to move the Fan D'ni Locations.

The IC story of the Nexus is that it was a transportation hub, used by the D'ni to travel within the cavern. It was created for that express purpose. THAT is how it was introduced. The entire idea that it was used as some massive linking machine for every age under the sun is just silly. It was intended to be used for transport within D'ni. Which is why it's categories reflect this. OOC it was used by Cyan as a invite system into other people's private ages. But seeing as how nothing in canon suggests that there was instances prior to Uru, it's safe to assume that instancing came along as a result of Yeesha magic. Yeesha and the Bahro were used by Cyan to explain away the mistakes in the canon that arrised from a OOC gameplay necessity. That is the story element I do not wish to break, what the Nexus was intended for, transportation within D'ni.

However if you want a few of the other important reasons here they are in no particular order:

By moving the Fan D'ni Locations to that the Community Nexus two things will have happened.

1. Since all fan created content will would now be hosted in one spot that is seperate from Cyan content, it looks like a barrier is being erected between what is fan and what is cyan content. Creating barriers, other than the ones to block avatars from going places they shouldn't, is not something I wish to see happen. So by keeping Fan Created D'ni locations within the Cyan Nexus we serve two purposes: a. Non seperation of what is fan and what is Cyan made. and b. The Cyan Nexus still remains the central hub for transporation with the Cavern itself.

2. You will now have a stripped down Cyan Nexus with few links within it, and a overbloated Communty Nexus with too many links in it. Remember there are more fan ages than there are Cyan ones. By the end of the year there will probably about 10 times more. By seperating them out using the above method (D'ni VS all other ages) it allows for both Nexus's to be sufficiently full without being too over cluttered, and it keeps a important IC story element secure.

Two reasons why that's bad:

1. People are linking between multiple Nexus Ages trying to figure out if <insert Age name here> is part of D'ni or a seperate Age.
2. Let's look at the Age categorization list: out of 111 Fan Ages, 9 are part of D'ni. We can't avoid being overcrowded in the WNexus, new fan content gets releases every few weeks at the latest, while there is less than 31 Cyan Ages. I don't think there is anyway to avoid overbloating until Cyan releases new content.

[nathan2055]

I have made the decision to support Chloe's idea! If this is OK with everyone, let's move forward!

[Whilyam]

Shorter Nathan: "This sucks! I'm all for it!"

I think the Tenth Doctor speaks for all of us when he asks:

WOT?

[nathan2055]

That's not right. While I'm confused about how this will work in the end, I think the only way that this will be without a hundred page long argument is by doing it the way the majority wants it.

[Aloys]

Talk about a complicated subject that needs to be sorted out. :s There's been talk about a Writers Nexus litterally since the beginning of customes Ages over 5 years ago, and yet it still hasn't been settled
Many aspects of this project haven't reached a consensus it seems (has any reached a consensus?). To add my 2 cents here are those I find the most important to decide:

Adding a new Nexus or updating the Cyan Nexus?
My personal opinion is that we should create a new Age, but it should not be limited to the current GUI/machine + single dark room setup. Here is why:
IC speaking: I think we would have created a new Nexus Age but without a complex GUI/machine: just a regular library (like Andy's Nexus). It's the easiest and most logical solution. The D'ni Nexus and the lattice are a very complex system and it would make sense that at first we would use something much simpler rather than hack D'ni technology. However we might have some sort of public computer setup there to help us manage it. Also Chloe is right that the Nexus was originally created to host only D'ni links; and I think we would have respected that. Also currently we have 'only' around 110 Ages; 110 books can easily fit on a couple shelves. And at the rate new Ages are being produced, we won't need to expand those shelves before a while. That being said, obviously a GUI is useful and more flexible than a static library.. But I disagree that we should use the Nexus GUI; because I don't think that IC this is what we would do. And IC is king to me. (as mentionned that's all IMHO) I think a regular computer with a touchscreen would make more sense.
Beside the current Nexus is extremely limited in space and after all these years I can't stand it anymore. I'm getting claustrophobic, I really need something fresh.

There as often been talk of a GoW 'community' Age, some kind of public place written as an alternative to the City. And this has often been linked to the need of a Nexus; it is the perfect opportunity to do it. I know this is much more work than a small Nexus Age, but both can be developed in parallel and the Age can be expanded overtime.

Managing Fan D'ni Ages in the Cyan Nexus?
If we leave all the D'ni (Cavern) links in the Cyan Nexus we need to make clear what are the Fan Ages and what are the Cyan Ages. We have to somehow label them as Explorer-restored areas. That means we still need to modify the Nexus files..

How to decide which Ages to add?
I haven't seen addressed, sorry if this has already been discussed. How, and by who, is the Age's list in the Nexus managed? This is an important responsability; moreso than Drizzle because it's in the game. Who decide what is added in the list? Is that the responsibility of the Shard admins? Or can/should the list be centralised somewhere else? And if the need arise, how can a Writer prevent his Age to be included in the Nexus? (for gameplay/story reasons, or any reason).

What happens when an Age is listed but the user hasn't downloaded it?
With Cyan Ages the download system took care of that; we do not have that (yet) so we need to handle that case; and it seems clear that we'll need a very OOC message in the GUI to say that the explorer doesn't have that book yet... :/

[nathan2055]

OK, I've come up with an idea to solve all of this debate. We'll have all of the D'ni areas stored in both the old Nexus and the WNexus. Thus, we keep canon and allow all Fan Areas to be in easy reach.

Now, to give answers to your few major problems, Aloys:

Adding a new Nexus or updating the Cyan Nexus?
I agree on your point. But, once again, we are building this for ease of use, not to show off our skills while making a Nexus. Although a library Age is something that would be a nice addition (I'm considering starting that project), we need something easy to use like a Nexus. And I kind of think a book library wouldn't work well as a "hangout spot", that's a different project.

Managing Fan D'ni Ages in the Cyan Nexus?
Like I said, D'ni areas will be kept in both places, and a WNexus book will be on the top of the category (perhaps we could include featured Ages too, I'm not sure). A Cyan's Nexus book will be on a pedestal in the back of the WNexus.

How to decide which Ages to add?
Most likely we will sort the Ages out in categories, and then WNexus pedestals can be added to reward Ages. If a shard admin doesn't want a specific Age on their shard, than can remove it. Although we will need to set out guidelines so if one Age of a story is removed, all of the other ones are removed instead of being left as a broken story.

What happens when an Age is listed but the user hasn't downloaded it?
The current system is downright confusing (saying "You have not visited darkened Ages"). For example: I link to Janga in my login, and then my dad links in with his login on the same install. It could confuse him into thinking he had already completed Janga, and miss out on that awesome Age. We need to implement some kind of easier way to manage this, maybe even download the Ages in the WNexus without linking. I thought we could say "Darkened Ages haven't been downloaded to the Nexus yet." This would make a OOC statement IC.

I've been kind of upset discussion has stopped on this subject, it's been ages since the last post. With OpenURU and the GoW Shard coming soon, this is really a necessary feature. We should try to make a consensus so we can start work on this.

[Fuchida]

I thought I share another bit of my humble opinion on this topic.

Let's take the example of another game. Little Big Planet.
In little Big planet, the whole creation process and the putting it online happens on client side. Where the server just serves as a share cloud, if you will.

Now missing out on the technical knowledge of the client and the server side of things I hope this is still possible as an Idea.

I agree on not touching the old nexus at all. Since people that are used to using the nexus would most probably be confused if things looked a lot different. Plus we all know how it is not very good being used with more than a few worlds, due to the design.

I think what Aloys meant, was a Library was more realistic. But an interface would also be helpful. Which means that we would probably have either a modified Guildhall with one of the "normally" closed or broken down doors opening up into a big room with shelves. That has a generator that operates a touch screen, where we can "find the book we need" by getting as an output the number and shelve it is on.

In-Game that would look like the interface and when we activate a book, it just takes us there, leaving out the whole "search your book mini game" that could happen out of this.

Why an Interface?

Because it solves two problems. One that you Nathan has mentioned. That through an interface (interface always means also code) the player will be able to be checked from the code if one of the worlds has or has not been downloaded. Therefore hiding/showing it in a list, according to the state of the players list himself. (There is also a possibility for the coder of the interface, to incorporate quickly any "download a new age from the server"-Function, if he wanted to)

Second it also makes uploading new ages easier, cause the link to the new age can directly be added into the "available for download" List and is then also when downloaded by a player, automatically visible in his age-list.

Also, this code used for the interface could be used also (setting forth another idea) in the Maintainers Guild Hall for "untested ages" for them to test and maybe with the function built into the interface, to ask for a maintainer password for one, but also when an age has been succesfully tested, can by the click of a mouse be sent to "tested, available for download/approved" and from then on will appear on the guild of writers bookshelf-Interface. (The bookshelf could just contain random books, not really the linking books actually available at the interface)

Basically, we wouldn't show of our skill by creating another fully new, completely out of the story "Guild Age" but we would just continue the Canon by modifying the already existent public guild halls with on additional room. That would then make people from the same guild meet more often, when they want to visit fan age. All of the guilds could have the same interface, with a couple of bookshelves in an area inside their guildhall. (Instead of having a monopoly on travelbooks in the guild of writers only, we copied our books for every guild)
This will bring people together, maybe even encouraging and strengthening the guild thinking in players.

Sorry going a little off-topic, there is so much connected with this nexus and therefore it is a big topic. And I think that is exactly, why no settling has been aquired.
But I think this idea coincides also with the message sent by cyan, saying that they wanted to get the guilds involved for organising the fan content.

(In case the area limit is reached we just add an "all-guilds" hall. Also if we are modifying the guildhall, why not add a big room for meetings with a display, so the guilds can actually use their guildhall for meetings related to their guild? (Topic Neighbourhood-decentralisation, guild centralisation))

Let me know what you think?

[J'Kla]

There seems to be some obsession with having a "community Nexus".

Following the D'ni model (cannon) A nexus was some sort of library (all be it automated) for access to collection of ages and while we probably still need the Cyan Nexus for their contributions there is nothing to say we must follow their model.

Any fan age can host a number of links to other ages and amongst those could be other Nexi (whatever the collective noun is).

Part of my puzzle element would be access to ages within my own group that were not attached to a nexus and that access should be from a linking book within another age and only from that linking book.

I could see a use for a development Nexus that would host links to ages up for testing that would have limited (by invite) access.

But I don't see this overiding need for an all encompassing Community Nexus with every age included.

[D'Lanor]

Part of my puzzle element would be access to ages within my own group that were not attached to a nexus and that access should be from a linking book within another age and only from that linking book.

You would still need a Nexus (or library) to get to the starting age within your group.

[nathan2055]

@Fuchida - The reason this project was renamed Community Nexus was because almost everyone agreed that this is not a "By the Writers, For the Writers" project. Although I agree that a library for each guild is a very good idea, it's kind of confusing. That's the reason we have a Nexus in the first place. I do see use of the library idea for Age testing (Maintainer's Library) and perhaps a featured Age library (Writer's Library). Although, in order to keep the DRC storyline intact (and the "no books linking across Ages" thing), we would need to have the libraries be in their own Age.

@J'Kla - Everyone was thinking about a reward system via custom Nexus pedestals. The only trouble with this is we would need to contact all the previous Age builders who had reward Ages (I remember that Janga and Eder Licinius both have reward Ages) and ask them to add the pedestals and code. The lucky part is that all of the people who released through UAM have their username on Dustin's wiki page. I could also think of these pedestals being added to other fan Ages (I've always thought it's a good idea to have Nexus pedestals on every Age, but at least we have /nexus).

@All - I really think that when it comes to design, something like Chloe's idea (room with imagers, chalkboard, and a upgraded Nexus machine) would work best.