Guild of Writers

At the moment this stands as a suggestion and discussion document.

How about we generate a generic D’ni subway station that sits in a conceptual age.

The idea being we create a station that can be passed out in the same way that the shells are in Ahra Phats the station is the same for everybody and there is one master station that you link into.

Two platforms and one line.

Trains are a single carriage that completely fills the track space.

The trains have a single carriage and no windows.

When no trains are in the station a bridge rises in the track space to allow access to both sides.

When a train is due to approach temporary barriers raise and any avatar in the track space is panic linked out.

The bridge then falls and once the train is in the barrier drops on the boarding side and a door opens in the carriage.

There are no exits from the primary station.

The carriage can hold a number of avatars up to some fixed limit. The carriage doors close and the train proceeds through a fixed sequence of stations as new stations are added the complexity of the system increases. Trains are fixed intervals.

When the doors change all avatars inside the carriage move to the next station in the system (not accessed till the doors are opened manualy)

Platform features are switch able just like Relto and one of those switch able features is an exit. What is beyond the exit is defined by the owner. Users may develop platform features that become generically available.

Just like relto pages. Say someone designs a plant pot with plant approved it can be made available to others for their station.

Technically speaking we have everything we need to make it happen. (animations; python, triggers and scripting abilities of all kinds)
We have (vaguely) think of a system like that for Ahra Pahts with boats. The big difference is that those boats would be located outside; not underground. But most of the big technical design stuff would be the same: vehicles following a fixed path and stopping at regular intervals.
The station idea may not really apply to Ahra Pahts though, as the boats would stop in the courtyards. (although not all of them are designed).

Vehicles and rides are always fun, and I always liked the idea of having some kind of transportation network in D'ni. Either a Subway system in the City Proper, or maybe some boats to go between the various parts of the Cavern. Unfortunately; the City Proper isn't available, and we don't have enough other parts of the Cavern to setup boats. But as a conceptual Age, or proof of concept, it would definitely be interesting to work on.

Vehicles and rides are always fun...

But they tend to be more so if you can perceive yourself moving, and the way you've described it so far, it reminds me more of the AP portal system than the boats. Perhaps the carriage would jostle slightly, or there might be some kind of animated texture moving by outside?

...the train proceeds through a fixed sequence of stations...

Does the train move physically between stations? That might lead to long transport times for the furthest-flung stations. Or does it only seem to move and the avys are warped to the new station, a la Gahreesen building 2? That seems unrealistic, but marginally preferable to the first one. Alternatively, after a certain point, the times might become the same, but until then they would vary based on distance?

...one line.

Need there be only one? I picture the initial station as a sort of hub, perhaps with a large glass and wrought iron dome like an old British industrial era station. There could be perhaps three intersecting lines; this would help mitigate the problem above. Of course, the switching would be a nightmare, so maybe two would be better. Or maybe on multiple levels!

...a generic D’ni subway station that sits in a conceptual age.

Does it have to be D'ni? As much as I would like to see such a thing in the city, I wouldn't have thought they'd have needed much in the way of physical transportation, given the Nexus and linking. As a second AP style project this might work better, and save us getting into trouble with the c-word.

Platform features are switch able just like Relto and one of those switch able features is an exit. What is beyond the exit is defined by the owner. Users may develop platform features that become generically available.

Just like relto pages. Say someone designs a plant pot with plant approved it can be made available to others for their station.

Now, that's a cool idea. Would there be a sort of computer terminal in the main station and in the individual stations which would allow for Relto-style on-the-fly modifications, or just a central OOC repository to share models? There could even be a set of 'official' stops in the conceptual age which tell a sort of story, with wedge-style reward additions to add to personal stops to prove a given puzzle was completed...

Sounds like a great way to connect the Hoods to me.

My only reasoning for one line was ease of design with a station oriented east west and trains going to multiple destinations east west trains running on the hour and every ten and west east 5 past and every 10. and as none of this is fixed and it's all still up for discussion.

Although linking the hoods sounds good the hood's are Cyan's this setup would belong to age builders and like Arah Phats but I see it with non coders able to add elements by gouing to a station of a designer and picking up a relto page for their station.

Just as our relto's are starting to develop individuality eventully the station's would too.

I am minded of the subway in Myst where you would be able to alight at any of the stops.