Community Nexus

[Atheni33]

Carl - I like the idea of using the pen in the tile design I think you should continue to work with it. Consider the negative space, or duplicating some of the lines, there are so many possibilities. Regarding the first design, I think its a good first start, the one issue I had with it was the way the brown pens lined up they looked like holly leafs and instantly I thought Christmas (but that could just be me). The second idea was good also but the rose color did not feel like Writers to me I think the red should be on the dark spectrum...maybe maroon or merlot. But I like where your going with it.

[Carl Palmner]

Another option would be to try something new altogether. After following the link, click the pick again for the full-res view. The texture itself is here.

Same idea as before but in a different way--I'm trying to incorporate the writer's symbol in a visible but not hit-you-over-the-head-obvious way. This time, the symbol of an open book is also incorporated into the design.

My biggest concern with this one after viewing it in 3d is that I'm afraid it might be a little too "busy" for a floor texture--i.e. so complicated that it is a bit of a distraction or causes a headache. I'm thinking that if that's a problem I can simply decrease the contrast on the painted book symbols and make the engravings lighter and more shallow, though--things which would take less than a minute to do.

[Wamduskasapa]

Nice I like...

Reminds one of a bird, possibly signifying flights of fancy and the soaring imagination of the writer...

[diafero]

To that end I'd like to remind everyone of the main goals here:

1. The Community Nexus will host only the links to fan created ages. IE, any area in D'ni you decide to make will at this time be accessed via Cyan's Nexus.

Are you speaking IC or OOC here? From what I understood, you mean IC, as in, ages that were really written by an explorer, as opposed to a Blender-built age that was just found/restored.

To be fair, I have refrained from commenting because of other issues that my original idea for the Nexus was tied into. The Writer's Nexus was intended to be part of a much larger project, that has yet to be announced. Mainly because that project involves an assortment of other people that I have not talked to about announcing the general project to the community as a whole. However the Writer/Community Nexus, since it was intended to be used by everyone and for everyone for the prupose of hosting the links to everyone's fan ages, seemed like it should have more input from the community on the development front than the project as a whole.

Once I talk to everyone involved in the overall project about wether we want to let the community know what we're developing, and how we're going to do that, then another post will probably be made as an official sort of annoucement.

Well, I'd say the Wrtier's/Community Nexus is a project in itself, and quite well separated from the ages it links to. I think we also managed to agree on a way to build it that makes it an isolated project that can be worked on independently.
Sorry to say that, Chloe, but your projects unfortunately tend to "fade away", and I'd rather not tie this into something bigger, just for it to vanish together with the rest.

[Carl Palmner]

@GPNMilano--ah, I hadn't realized we had decided for certain that it was a repurposed D'ni Age. I was thinking that the IC aspect of the Age was still in discussion. I can of course add scratches, cracks, and smudges to whatever floor texture we choose (if we even choose one of mine--as I said I won't be offended if you and/or Atheni decide to use someone else's work). Or more likely, what I'll do is create a new texture for the age-and-grime which can be overlaid on the first and repeat at different dimensions and intervals. My understanding is that Uru supports multiple textures with transparencies on objects--correct?

@Wamdusk--Thanks!

[Atheni33]

Carl - I'm not part of the team working on the overall project so I don't know where it's going design wise. The community nexus redesign was interesting to me so I approached GPN. I had a few ideas and some free time and thought it would be a good opportunity to do something creative in blender (which I'm still learning). Now in hindsight I didn't realized the nexus was going to be a repurposed D'ni Age so my room may not work for what GPN has in mind. I do like your tile designs...but it's not my decision what is going to be used on the final design.

[Carl Palmner]

Ok. I wasn't actually sure where you were at in the project--just that it was clear GPNMilano was asking for your input on model.

Of the 4 I've posted so far, my personal favorite is the last one. Milano, if you and your team want this texture for the project, let me know and I'll "dirty it up" (i.e. add scratches and grime and other signs of age) for you. If not, that's totally cool, too.

[nathan2055]

I really like how this is shaping up. And, Carl, your floor textures are awesome! I think, in regards to Cyan's Nexus, maybe we should delete it altogether. Simply moving all of the Cyan content and the invite system seems like a good idea, though it would require some more work on our part. After all, having to go in and redo the Cyan Nexus GUI would be annoying when we could have just moved it over to the WNexus.

[Carl Palmner]

I have to disagree. I don't want to lose the Cyan nexus and I think it works just fine for navigation around D'ni. What we really need is something to facilitate navigation around the fan Ages, and there are just way too many of them for the simplistic Nexus system to work. That's why I like the idea of a Writer's Nexus--but I don't think it should replace Cyan's.

[diafero]

Just to re-iterate: The options we came down to are to either add a new Nexus for ages that were written by an explorer, and keeping all the ages that are located in D'ni, in Cyan's Nexus (I wonder where ages that were written by a D'ni but found by an explorer, and those ages that were not written but created and reached differently - PlasmUru Maps - would belong to? I'd assume the Writer's Nexus). So Cyan's Nexus would be the D'ni's original intra-cavern travel system, and the new Nexus would be restored and extended by explorers to fit our needs. Or, as an alternative, to replace the GUI in Cyan's Nexus - and only the GUI - to get all ages there. This was all seen from an IC perspective, so fan-ages that are located in D'ni would go to Cyan's Nexus; we do not want to artificially distinguish ages by their author (Cyan vs. fans).
My personal favourite is the first solution, and it seems to be the general stance (from comments like Chloe's or Carl's).