Play the Planet

a reply to: southbeach


Outstanding, and thank you! We can either start here and kick the ideas around, or if you'd prefer to work together on skype or via email, we can do that too! Just let me know your preference. (I've personally always found it more fun and engaging to do creative jam sessions on forums, but am completely fine with some other format too!)


Sadly, the one thing we can't do at this point is use the actual website. Godaddy kicked me off of their servers after I crashed the one the site was on for the third time...so I archived it and have it in mothball till I can a) get a new host, b) get it set up there, and c) fix the bugs that keep causing the crashing...URGH...

-=Vel=-

a reply to: Velociryx

Email me please ,just send me a pm.

a reply to: southbeach


Just sent you a PM.
Here are some notes about Quest Design, from the Quest in the system:

Quest Designer


Quests are the "missions" that drive the game. These missions fall (broadly) into two categories: Skill acquisition, and Acts of Service.


Generally speaking, Quests should be nested - that is to say, one Quest leads to a more complicated one. First level/tier Quests are generally the ones that involve learning a new skill, while their more advanced cousins are the ones that involve helping others.


They must be actionable, and have a specific, quantifiable goal that can be attained.
In general, the right approach is to provide background, explain in detail what is to be done, then break it down into specific action steps. I personally use a "recipe style" format that seems to flow pretty well.

One of the major goals here, is to make sure that Quests can be completed for free, or for minimal cost, so part of their design needs to include information on sourcing whatever materials are needed to successfully complete the mission. IE - if the quest is to build a greenhouse, then plans and schematics need to be provided, along with recommended sources for free materials (craigslist's free section, freecycle.org, etc). These sources should be LEGAL (ie - if the mission is to learn a new language, we don't want to recommend using Bittorrent to download an illegal copy of Rosetta Stone).

It's also fine to mention paid solutions *(ie, buy a shelter logic greenhouse (link), or buy a copy of rosetta stone (link), or whathaveyou, but we absolutely want to ensure that players have a chance to complete the quest using free materials.

Verification is a vital component of Quest building. There has to be some kind of verification, or we can't properly credit the Quest's completion. Each Quest has a Quest Administrator, who monitors the Quest he/she is assigned to, answers questions from participants, and conducts the verifications (so basically, he's like an Associate Professor).

Don't worry about rewards or XP values for the quests - those will be assessed and assigned later on.


-=Vel=-

a reply to: Velociryx

Thanks.
Im in the Philippines at the moment so i might be a bit slow responding as im half way up a mountain and in the process of moving to another town on another Island.

So I spent the morning hours at the tire place, getting two new tires and a front end alignment. As ever, I brought my trusty notebook with me and did some brainstormning. I had previously found this:

www.ecospheretech.com...

It intrigued me, and I wanted to do something like it, but my plan is to use the first shipping container as a storage building, so I need to maximize interior space for that purpose.

While I was doodling, I hit on a fairly simply idea to triple the roof surface though. I could place the container, put panels on the roof, lighting in the interior, then start building "trays" on the side walls. These trays would hold additional panels. Hinged at the top (on the roof), I could simply open them up (folding them upward so that the panels that had been resting along the side walls are now pointing toward the sky. A support beam/leg could be crafted to the underside like the legs of a folding table to provide structural support.

End result: the "awning" to either side of the container would triple the roof space, giving me 920 sq. ft. of space to apply panels, but only require a single shipping container. More than enough power to run all the tools I'll need for the other builds.

I think I've also hit on a design aesthetic. We have a local artist here who makes steampunk lamps. When I'm ready, I think I'm going to work with him, and we'll turn the power cube/storage building into a steampunk design...

-=Vel=-

There's another open source "thing" also called a power cube:
opensourceecology.org...

Suggestions for an alternate name are welcome.

-=Vel=-