Sorry for the book, but Glitchy downtime has given me the time to actually put pen to paper on everything I’ve been thinking of lately! I’ve seen lots of wonderful ideas for bits and pieces throughout Ur, from how we could get honey to snowglobes with old houses in them and so forth, but I haven’t seen too many “bigger picture” ideas for the growth, continuity, and self-sustainment of evolving game-play in Glitch. SO…just a few thoughts, and of course, everyone is welcome to build upon or discard as desired!
1. PROJECTS: “IF” it holds true that TS will continue to periodically deliver pre-made regions serving various functions (sloth territories or fox parks/preserves, etc), then the opportunities for street projects is diminished. Building on the awesome mini-projects we now have available on our home streets,
WHAT IF you were able to randomize these same types of resource projects on Ur streets, just on a bigger scale? Perhaps you have a huge Rook attack (multiple rooks?!)….this would allow plenty of people to continue working on their Rook skills/badges, but also create a large enough “disturbance” on the street to require multiple mini-projects that could help folks work on their project badges as well. Perhaps the resources to rebuild objects could have an element of whimsy so that you never know what you’ll need to build the object back up (and it’s something you couldn’t necessary stock up on beforehand since you never know what will be needed). Projects could include not just trees, rocks, animals, etc, but also some of the levels (stuff we jump up & down on, even some of the scenery???) Oh, and of course the resources needed to rebuild should be significantly higher in number than ones on our own home streets.
OR
WHAT IF we used the same mini-project concept for some of the “old houses” you plan on keeping around Ur? Still keeping it random, perhaps if we wander into an abandoned apartment or house and discover a potential set of projects inside that would allow us the use of that completed apartment/house as a party room or group hall…for a designated period of time (one game day, one RL day??) Again, allows folks to work on their project badges with the added benefit of an exclusive party room in a cool place???
2. VENDORS: If I understand correctly, the idea floating in the forums (at the moment) is that street vendors will eventually go away. If this is correct, then of course we’re all looking at the items currently being sold that we have no other way of obtaining. The following are just a few ideas for each:
Mushrooms – randomly given when watering/petting in the enchanted forest; grows on the underside of floating islands – must jump/super-jump to collect; feed wild boars to go hunt for our “truffles” (or maybe ostriches would be more appropriate?).
Honey – randomly given when watering/harvesting purple flowers; + see random idea B below. Olive Oil – randomly given when petting piggies; random spigots hidden in trees (up high) – must make glass bottle to collect (possible use for crystals?). Maybe a monkey must be present to turn the spigot on for you (how insulting is that?). ;)
Coffee – randomly given when grinding spices; special vines found randomly (they’re moving vines!) in abandoned buildings that could be harvested (but only at the top!...must climb vine to find pouches of beans!).
Beer – (already randomly given when smelting); MAKE IT – hooch, bubbles, honey, & gandlevery; tickle a yoga bear making it lose its concentration and give up the goods. ;)
Ice – randomly given when mining beryl in Groddle Heights; + see new underwater region idea below.
ALSO
I have to add a +1 (or more!) to Violet’s idea of having personal home street vendors (if we choose to “build”/set one up). I love the idea that I could specialize in making furniture if I wanted, and could stock up my personal vendor with whatever I have in stock at the time, so that when folks stop by my street, they could purchase from the vendor if they choose without me having to be there. I also really like Stuv’s idea of advertising that my vendor will purchase X amount of certain items (say guano cuz I hate having to jump for them!), so if said Glitchen is perusing my street and has them to sell….well there’ya go! As the system develops, we’ll learn who specializes in what and who wants to buy whatever else and develop our economy from there. Oh, and I’m sure you could come up with a few more “papers” required in order to run our businesses too!
3. REGIONS: Or the “discovery” of new regions! Personally, I think Grendaline has been slighted for long enough and should be given some consideration, but maybe in a unique way! You created 3 new seam streets recently and their connection points were/are positively brilliant for folks wanting some unique ways to get to other parts of the world without having to teleport where the subway isn’t close by. Again, built from this…. WHAT IF you created an underwater cave/tunnel system with the same concept in mind? Similar to the enchanted forests, we don’t need many, but perhaps strategically located to supplement Glitchen being able to travel further outside the subway areas. This “could” create a wealth of additions in virtually every aspect of the game, such as feeding helium to the otter who will go catch your salmon for you (random returns of course!), or discovering you could stand in an Ice Pocket (underwater of course) and “imagine” the water compressing to create ice (some sort of reverse martial imagination tactic?!). Of course Glitchen would have to swim through the watercaves, so perhaps they need to build a breathing apparatus, or perhaps an enlightened episode of meditation allows one to hold their breath for a period of time….so many possibilities!
4. RANDOM:
a. Have beavers located near watercave entrances that would chew/carve intricate patterns into your wood to make into fancier furniture. Of course you’d have to give up some extra wood in payment. (or you could be totally cheesy and use a woodchuck.) ;)
b. Create a variety of flowers to be grown. Multi-purposed. Only a variety of flowers planted simultaneously will attract bees so that you get honey when you harvest the flowers. Different flowers can produce different colors to use in fabric dyes for furniture/rugs/etc. Can also deliver certain properties to enhance new potions? For example – Hyacinth would produce the color deep purple, have a distinctly “grape-like” scent, and is a key ingredient in the Grape Expectations potion which when poured/quaffed permits the user to increase their harvests for a 10-minute period. Or perhaps the Frost Flower would produce the color silver, have a distinctly “cold” attitude, and is a key ingredient in the Shivery Timbers potion which creates Ice Pockets (ref – making ice idea above).
c. Develop Giant holidays further. Zilloween is awesome (and still fun to participate in!), but I’m a Grendaline girl, and I’m sure others preserve their piety for other Giants as well. ;) Faereluth had some great ideas for Spriggantine (though perhaps it’s celebrated during Root to be consistent?), especially the “turning into a tree if you try to poison it” idea, simply because it’s a unique activity that diverts Glitchen from the everyday activities for a while! Perhaps AlphaCon is a celebration on all new inventions where festival streets are set up with “personal” vendors selling their wares, or Sprinkling is a celebration of Gredaline’s life-giving waters; maybe it actually rains in Ur that day and Glitchen can jump in puddles, enjoy reduced growing time in crops/herbs/[flowers] (without having to water of course!), or perhaps Lemadan is the day to reflect on where we Glitchen came from and are encouraged to travel old routes again with bonuses (like our iMG clouds?) for every ancestor we “remember” (get a little more use from our ghost quest heart?). …and so on and so on….
Well, quite literally, I could go on and on, but I think this is enough for the moment! And TS, I hope you simply take this as a testament to how creative and inspired I think your game is, because I’m excited about what has come and what is yet to come and want to be a part of it. OK, so anyway….fire away….!!!