Since a few people have asked about how I did so well on the Street Projects, I decided to make a sort of guide for how I did it. I actually didn't prepare for it intentionally, except for a few things. This makes it even more odd. :P
[Top Badges]
Project Enthusiast- Helped out with 53 phases of a project
Odd Jobber- Ranked as top 5 contributors for 11 phases of a project
[Personal Background]
I'll start by saying that (for those who don't know) I am on ssi/disability for mental health issues, so when I play an online game, it kinda becomes my life. I don't go out socially anymore, maybe a couple of times a year, though about once a week one of my friends comes to my house to see me. And once in a while I go to one of my other friends house to talk about computers or work on them, hang out, stuff like that. The only times I actually leave the house is when I go get groceries and go to the bank.
Basically, my level of dedication and drive is due to those issues. While I agree that it may not be healthy to spend so much time on a game, sometimes it really is all that a person has. Anyone out there who has PTSD, anxiety disorder, depression, or anything else like that will be more dedicated to these games in most cases. I have not been diagnosed with any of the previous things, but I was using those as an example. Since 1999, I have been diagnosed with Borderline-personality disorder, Bipolar, and ADHD. I don't mind sharing this info, as I am very open an honest. On a side note, please feel free to contact me if you have any of the same things I do, or anything else, and you need someone to talk to. I'm always willing to lend an ear and help out.
[Stuff I actually prepared for]
I already had a bunch of skills since I used a script since I started playing this game to keep the skill queue filled, and later started using Glitch Academy. (thanks to the person who made those!) The last skills I got to prepare for this was Blockmaking and Fuelmaking, since I already had the other skills that were needed to get those. I actually got those quite recently, then bought my own Blockmaker and Fuelmaker for my house.
I started gathering dirt, loam, and jellisac about a couple of weeks ago. My concept of time is also pretty screwed up, as I don't have any kind of set schedule and go to bed at various times, but I'll try to make my best guesses. Even though most people thought that it was pretty useless to do, there were a few people who were prepared for this part. A couple of times someone else was faster on the trigger than I was!
I started making AAA blocks, since I decided that probably a lot of the best blocks would be used, though there were some projects that required a few different types. I wanted to go with the somewhat harder to make ones though, since I had the time to collect everything. Over a couple of weeks, I ended up making about 4 or 5 bigger bags full of the blocks. The blocks only stack up to 5, so it's not really as many blocks as you would think. (80 blocks per bigger bag)
Gathered jellisac and got fuelmaking after that so I wouldn't have to buy more fuel for the blockmaker, but I didn't use all my jellisac. I carried some of it with me to the projects just in case, even though I didn't think it would be used as a raw material, but turned out that it was! I only had a couple of stacks of it though, so I donated all I could to the project. (jellisac stacks to 100 per slot) Also carried around a bag of my blocks of peat at one point, those also helped.
The last thing that I prepared for was the Crystals, which I didn't get to use. I didn't pop up at a project that was using those until too late. In one phase of a project that I got to late, someone got 40% of the work done by donating a load of crystals. Forgot who it was, they can post here if they like! All of the other phases I went to didn't need them. I still have a couple of stacks of crystals for the future. (crystals stack 30 per stack) As I like to branch out and do lots of different things since I have so many different skills, I had started gathering jars of fireflys a few weeks ago as well. Used some on my carved pumpkins to make lanterns for myself and to send to people for random gifts. Then started gathering them to make crystals after that.
[Stuff I didn't technically prepare for]
This is where it gets interesting. Since I have the time and play this all day, I gather stuff all of the time to prepare for making myself food and for making mostly food to sell. My main exports are Awesome Stew, Flaming Humbabas, and EHSP. Basically, when I go out gathering, I stop at every tree. I also pet and water every tree, as well as harvest it twice. It helps out with getting more exp to level at higher levels since it builds up pretty quickly when you harvest so much. I just use the enter key and mash it when I get beside trees.
I had a great build up of garden crops from where I make Awesome Stew. I am very organized on here, unlike in real life where everything is kinda chaotic. I have (well had) my closet full of stuff, organized by bags. A bag (or two) for Potatoes, some bags for Cherries, Bubbles, Parsnips, and so on. Any time my stock got out of hand, I would make several stacks of Awesome Stew, Flaming Humbabas, or whatever else for my own personal use- just to get the stock down a bit. Had several bags for meat, since I have 28 piggies at my house, not sure what is left yet- I need to get back in the game after this to get organized and clean out the huge mess on my floor from yesterday!
Basically, I had some stuff on me from where it didn't all fit in the bags in my closet. Potatoes, Cabbage, Bubbles, stuff like that. Once I saw that there was cooking in the projects, once I ran out of things, I would go back to my house and grab several stacks or a bag of something to take with me to the next project. I didn't go back to my house too often, but a few times. I pretty much used up my whole stock of stuff that I had saved up, which took up my whole closet. I didn't take any of my alchemy related stuff with me, since that just took up more space. I didn't have any alchemy stuff prepared at all, as I make that to sell after I go mining, which I don't do as often as I do everything else.
Pretty much, most of the stuff that I contributed was unplanned and came from personal stock. I also asked people at the site for certain items that I didn't have, when I had plenty of all of the other items, as other people were doing. These things were mostly grocery items, as I only buy those whenever I need them, normally. I ended up buying some groceries towards the end between a couple of projects, but then most of those weren't needed, you know how that is.
[Other tips]
Since I bought a year subscription at the end of the beta, I have a build up of tele tokens since I mostly walk everywhere in most cases. I used those willy nilly at first, then when I ran out of those for the day, I started to make sure that I rationed them when needed to go to my house or wherever to pick stuff up. (can only use 5 tele tokens a game day)
Grabbed tele scripts from people who were giving them out, and at first I followed other people when they were offering to tele to other sites, though that died out a bit when it went from 3 open sites at a time down to 2. Then it went back to 3 after a while, so that was helpful.
At first, it seemed that everything was all synced up, and you could go from one site to another and do pretty much every project. Then there was a technical issue at one of the sites for a while, and it threw off the rotation. I still kept a notepad on my desk with the rotation of where I wanted to go in order to try to get to as many projects as I could. I would write down which ones completed a phase and which ones I wanted to go to next.
Since a phase happened every 30 minutes, you could check the location page in the Encyclopedia to see how long ago a street was opened, so you were able to see about when the next 30 minute cycle would start, and if it was still an active project or had finished. I kept my eye on that a lot, as well as the map, seeing what had been done and which new streets had been opened and still grayed out.
[In Conclusion]
It all came down to organization and then being willing to spend all of the other stuff I had saved up for personal use. Once I got into it, it was just so addicting that I ended up using just about everything! Almost 24 hours of running around like a chicken with my head chopped off, making things and donating things. I had several crashes at first using Chrome, till someone suggested using Firefox, which greatly cut down on the crashes. There were still a few crashes with Firefox, but not nearly as many. I'm back to using Chrome now though, since it seems better when there isn't mass traffic to deal with at a project.
I finally got to the point where I had ran out of most things and I was just burned out on it, so I decided to stop. But the whole competition part of it was very fun, though I know that a lot of people didn't like that part of it. But as I was discussing with someone, their real life is hectic, so they didn't like the rush rush part of it. Whereas my life is a bit meh, so I thrived on the competition of the whole thing and the rush it gave me. It takes all kinds when it comes to something like this!
All in all, I was very happy to get my name on seven streets! I remember during beta and after launch, when I would see Lord Bacon-O's name on so many streets on the location page, and wished that I had been around on that part of beta so I could have had a chance to have my name on the location pages as well. That is what drove me to do so much to do well in this project! I love this game so much and wanted to also be "immortalized" in its history. :)
[Links to badges I got]
Project Enthusiast- http://www.glitch.com/achievements/project_enthusiast/
Odd Jobber- http://www.glitch.com/achievements/odd_jobber/
Participant- http://www.glitch.com/achievements/participant/
Interested Party- http://www.glitch.com/achievements/interested_party/
Team Player- http://www.glitch.com/achievements/team_player/
[Streets I got my name on]
Medam Mads- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LUV1D5ROINF2MDO/
Asvina Vet- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LUVNUGNGN5F2BOT/
Koumbahm Bahm- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LUV3TN6CIDF2DL5/
Bhadra Pada- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LUVCMP7BM7F2JET/
Kanni Climb- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LUVT92Q1PNF23GR/
Yugadi Yearns- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LUV1V6AR27G26QO/
Nagrjuna Junta- http://www.glitch.com/locations/LHVM50PPD7B2EEU/
The only one I got first overall on was Kanni Climb, very proud of that one! Came out first in several individual phases in different ones, but it's a bit tougher to get first on the overall street itself.