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 Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:20 pm
Mad props to Storybrooke for gathering all of the information I was too lazy to do myself.
Please do not quote the second post. my god.
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 7:19 pm
Explanation on Towns 1's Removal:
Question: Are you saying that these codes can change by themselves? I would think that would drive you crazy
Answer: I am not doing anything with it. It does happen that some code on the server changes, and it will break something in towns 1. This is the point, it is breaking. I can't stop it.
It does drive me crazy. It doesn't exactly change by itself, but it does seem like that. There are a lot of factors.
The first thing is that looking at the towns 1 code, I can tell there were at least 3 other developers writing the code before me. The first was somewhat basic but functional code, the second developer (or someone in the middle) tried to make it more advanced and clean it up, the 3rd tried to switched it back to basic. Think of it as a story that was translated from English to Russian, from Russian to Japanese and then from Japanese back into English. Things get lost in the translations.
The second thing is that towns and everything else on Gaia relies on the servers, what we call the back-end. Sometimes, something on the back-end changes, or deleted and that changes what is happening elsewhere. That doesn't happen a lot, because we've got a really great group of back-end developers who know what's going on. But on those rare occasions where it does happen, it takes a bit of trouble to track it down. That makes it feel like it changed on its own.
The other thing is that towns, rally, and v-hollywood were all written in an older version of flash, again this doesn't happen often, but sometimes with the release of new flash players small errors pop in with older code. The code was written before Facebook!
what was made clear to me, when I came to Gaia, was that both the company and the users of the site wanted to do events and games in towns, and with the existing system is wasn't possible. Now we have a new working towns, a bit small to be sure, but easy to expand for the future, and take on some of the brilliant ideas that we've seen on the forums.
I got here a year ago today, and in that short time, and with this amazing team of people, we been able to create something that we can expand on for the foreseeable future.
Explanation can be found on Page 36.
The Thread can be found here
Question: Hmmm what can you tell us it will have so far?
Answer: Well.... We will have each town represented, Durem, Barton, Gambino Island, etc. We will start with one town and build out from there. Zip codes and the directory are going away and will be replaced with a GPS (Gaia Positioning System) device.What else would you like to know?
Question can be found on Page 19.
Question: As a roleplayer, the prospect of scenery diversity in towns is exciting, but I'd really like it if the squares & zipcodes were kept.
My friends and I have sat in the same square since 2006 when the Zurgs visited Towns in their UFO's, and personally,
I'd feel like I lost my home without that zipcode and signature fountain to sit around.
Even if the UFO's never return, the place has become more than just a center square of Towns to us.
Answer: Town squares will probably still be there. As I say we want to have as many gathering spaces as possible. The zip-codes are probably going away, but we are planning on something much more modern.
Question can be found on Page 5.
Question: What I would like to see
An ability to 'save' chats or at least make them copy/pastable out of Towns into a word program. My friends and I do a lot of Towns rping these days, and it would be great if we could save the chats for posterity and to share with people who missed the session. Maybe a way to pm yourself a chat session before you log out?
I just wanna say too, that I LOVE that you're asking us for help and input while working on Towns 2.0. Towns is one of my favorite parts of Gaia and the update to housing you did made it even better. I can't wait to see what you've got in store for us.
Answer: I think saving chats is a great idea. I think I'm going to put in a button to save the chat to a text file. I'll try adding it to the house for testing.
Question can be found on Page 8.
Question: eh I'm not sure how I feel about it looking like rally... uh
ehn well
the avatars won't move as slow as rally right?
:
I'm honestly fine with towns the way it is, I just think the pose limit should be shorter *soccor be edited so it actually works*
possibly more gold from trees/bushes
maybe a more 'town' like appearance but.. idk. I'm afraid all the rally people will migrate to 2.0 towns if you make it look like that. :c
Answer: It will not look like rally. The avatars should walk a bit faster, and will have path finding.
Question Part 2: Path finding? ;o
Answer Part 2: Yeah, sorry, techie word. Try to walk around a tree or a rock, right now in towns your avatar will stop at the object. In towns 2.0 your avatar will know to avoid it.
Question can be found on Page 19.
Question: <3<3<3<3<3<3
Okay initially, I had ideas of this going in but yeah, you may trash it, but I decided why not, right?
What I'd like to see here would fit though, It'd be nice for a change in pace.
- Expand Towns Zips from 9 to 16, the main 9 consisting of 9 main attractions to each town, [Shopping center, Central Fountain, Etc] and they'd be all split in and the transitions is much like zOMG's. But when you go to the area's with the houses, [barton 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16], that's where you get the loading screen.
- More avatar interactivity and poses. Sure it's gonna be a hassle to create more poses, but initially, kneeling isn't exactly sitting. You can make this as a towns exclusive y'know
- The variety of adding interactivity in the center if the idea was placed upon. Sure you'd like to have more fun and games, but if not for interactivity, it'd be even better [per se, have stores, ACTUALLY working]
- Abolishing of town's topics isn't exactly needed, they just need to keep an eye out more into the people that post it, and make it EXACTLY worth 2k, because everyone setting the post nowadays isn't paying. Don't know if that's a glitch, but you need to implement that again.
- Finally mini-events that come across. Sure it'd be nice to have a flying giftbox once in awhile, but when you shake trees and such, we need to have more drop other than just gold y'know.
Answer: ok, not trying to trash but here we go:
The zip codes are going away, replaced with street addresses and a gps system.
I've been told by the artist the poses are locked for all eternity. Sorry.
We will have a lot more interactivity in towns. I'm not sure about the stores.
We will have a lot of events and mini-events in the new towns.
Question can be found on Page 23.
Question Part 1: I really like the idea of each home being its own individual hangout, separated from others. On top of that, I think it would be a good idea to keep the homes separate from, let's say the default barton directory list. Like how it shows only 001000-001099, instead make those the only available Barton's, and maybe do another for each Durem, Aekea, etc., and just make a search bar, much like zipcode, but for a person's username to go to their home area. And I love the idea of a garage for your car in towns. Also, if this would attempt to clear up the situation with lag in homes, in my home, it seemed as if the avatar moved, as it would if someone was experiencing lag, but it is just the movement for the avatar. Anything else wouldn't be affected. And as it was described before, dragging describes it well
Im really looking forward to this new version.
Answer Part 1: I've learned a lot of tricks since I made the homes about a year ago. After the rejected Olympics I'd like to give the homes a makeover. I have to do some revisions anyway, because the old towns resolution is 550x750 and the new towns is 1024x768
we are doing away with zip codes, and having neighborhoods instead,
Question Part 2: As a similar or completely different concept from zip codes? and would the search bar still be possible as it is currently?
Answer Part 2: You'll have a street or neighborhood address like 45 Gambino Heights, or 15 Durem Dells. We haven't come up with the names yet. What search bar are you talking about?
Question can be found on Page 25.
Question: Good job on it so far, it's a lot nicer compared to the old 05 version. I especially like that you have to click on the arrows to use them. Though currently, if you click an arrow, it redirects you back to the spawnpoint for when you first enter, but that may be because of the heavy amount of users.
Are you guys going to add a directory? I think that would be a smart move instead of clicking town to town to get to where you want to go. Or are you going to host different towns on different servers like how they have separate spaces in the games?
Answer: We are going to have a gps system to guide you through the town. There are a lot of glitches right now. We are only suppose to have about 50 people in one area, but we have like 500. It should be fixed soon
Question can be found on Page 28.
Question: I apologize if this was on purpose but I remember at one point in time it will save what you've collected the last time you were in Towns.
Now it seems to only save what you've collected in that instance.
Is this a bug or was this something decided upon?
Also it would be nice if the things we're collecting don't get stuck in places we can't reach like directly under a town sign or something.
Answer: I am not sure how it is working right now. I'm going to try to make sure things don't get stuck under other things in the new towns. We've stopped working on towns 1, and it will be shut down eventually. We will discuss later about how it will work in new towns.
Question 2:
1. Allowing you to see, friends only, friend of friends only, and to see everyone. This will let people reduce lag greatly.
2. Day night cycle toggle on or off.
3. Items On or off. This will let you get rid of bugs and flowers as sometimes they can get really annoying.
Answer 2: 1. we limit how many people can be a room at any given time. We will have options later for gathering with your friends.
2. Right now we have not put in any nighttime into towns 2 (Gambino is going through a period of the year where it is day all the time!), but I imagine letting you keep it day might be an option.
3. I think that can be arranged.
Question 3: 1. Is it possible to make the trees and houses transparent somehow, like hover? In Towns 1, it hard to see and pick up trash items when they are hiding in back of them.
2. Are we gonna have to claim our Gaia house again, or will it just have a different look to it?
Answer 3:
I'm not sure if I will give you an x-ray vision option or not, I have not considered it.
You will have to claim a spot again. If you are the first person to claim the neighborhood, you get to say who lives there. It will have a different look, depending on which town you live in.
Question can be found on Page 34.
Question: So do I. I really can't see how all the flower/paper/trash pickups are gonna fit in, either. Right now the towns are perfect the way they are for that. They better have enough space to go wayyy out for collecting or there isn't gonna be enough to support the alchemy game with their flower/paper/trash component requirements for the basic fundamental formulas from which most other things come from.
I think there should be TWO versions of towns ... the old way, AND the new way
Call it scenic town and culture town or something That way, nobody loses out
Answer: The problem with the old towns is that the code is corrupt. That means I can't fix anything or add anything. It also has a lot of security problems and too many people abusing it. We will have both until the end of the year.
Question can be found on Page 35.
Question: My biggest question is, will the old towns remain available after 2.0 is officially released? From what I've seen of it in the olympics preview, it's simply not in my taste. I much prefer the old towns system right now, and it'd be a little crushing to lose it to 2.0, especially since towns is where I spend most of my time.
Answer: Our plan is to phase it out by the end of the year. We will get all the features of old towns into the new one before it is closed.
I know it will be difficult for many to switch over. The simple truth is, that it can no longer be maintained, and there are too many security issues. It also has become more difficult to add anything new to it, or to fix problems. We are constantly being given great ideas for towns on the forums, and for a long time have not been able to do anything about it.
So far, we have only released a small part of towns 2.0, just a slice of Gambino. The rest of the island is yet to be completed, and then we will add homes (on smaller islands I think) with new styles.
Next we will add the other towns, Durem, Akea, and Barton. We have not decided in what order they will be added.
I hope that some of the new additions will better suit your taste.
Question 2: In all honesty... I don't think I'm willing to make the switch. As much as I wanted Towns 2.0, it's far different from what I had imagined. Already one of my sole reasons for remaining on the site is much less worth the trouble it takes... And with towns... I don't think there's much point in staying on the site without it. It really is my top reason for being here. I'll spend the rest of my time as a towns citizen but... With 2.0 I think I'll take my leave from gaia. There's just not much worth coming back to after it's gone.
It's nothing you did, don't get me wrong. And I don't expect the whole thing to be scrapped for one person but... It's just not the same. I do understand that sometimes things need to change but I guess what I don't get is why both can't remain open.
Answer 2: Mostly because of security. Also we can't maintain it. I am constantly being asked to fix things in the old towns, and it is just unmanageable.
I understand how you feel, but at least have a look at it complete.
Question 3: ❤
I don't know much about flash spaces / coding / etc.
And Forgive me if this was already asked before hand.
But I couldn't help but wonder what you meant by 'the features of old towns.
Does this mean you will be keeping the directory?
Will each section of the new version have its own individual zip code?
And my last question, will it still get it's own window like zomg, rally, and other flash spaces?
I only ask this because with how big the window is, there is still space to scroll since my browser menu / header {Whatever you want to call it.}
is in the way a little and that wasn't a problem with the old version of towns, zomg, and rally.
Over all I love the new version. It looks incredible
and I love how much smoother it all runs!
I'm so fast now!!! xD There is still a tad bit of lag in some areas but really it is much much better then the older version of towns.
It's amazing.
❤
Answer 3: I didn't see this question at first. The font is a bit small for my eyes.
The features of old towns I am referring to are things like bugs, trash, flowers, money trees, houses etc. We are adding a lot of new things as well.
It will have its own window. No directory, no zip code. We will replace the directory with a Gaia positioning device. The zip codes will be replaced with addresses. 12 Gambino Heights, Gambino Island, for example.
Question can be found on Page 38.
Question: During the Rejected Olympics, every time I refreshed the page, I landed in a new server, so I wasn't always guaranteed the one with, say, the one or two friends who were waiting for me to play with them. If I were to want to host a party or an event in Towns 2.0, would there be a way to ensure that my friends (and some strangers, if it were a guild party) would end up in the same location? Many thanks!
Answer: Yes, you'll be able to create an event for friends or the public, for a small fee. Anyone wanting to attend will click on the link and be guided to the location, and the system will make sure you are on the correct server.
If you want to find an individual friends, you can use the gps (Gaia positioning system) device to locate them.
Question can be found on Page 39.
Question: Inactive Neighbors~ (If this was mentioned before I apologize, I did not see it.)
Will there be some way to get rid of neighbors that haven't logged in an extended period of time so that we may move active players into our neighborhood instead?
Bugs/Trash/Flowers~ (Just adding another opinion to the piles)
I like the way they spawn by time right now. Although an even distribution of everything seems desirable for things like alchemy, that sounds like it would be a lot of trash if you are trying to focus down on one thing in particular. I think it works out very well right now when you are short on one thing and you know exactly what time you need to be in town to find them. Tiny bugs like house flies make me rage and I agree that the rares are too rare.
Answer:
You can claim your own neighborhood and invite your friends there. You can also kick them out.
We still haven't decided anything about bugs.
Question can be found on Page 40.
Question: I see how you say it will be easy to hang with friends. Will it still be as easy to talk to random strangers and meet new people as it is in Towns current system? Is the system going to be set up in a way where it prioritizes you to be on a server or room (I'm sorry if I have the terms wrong here) with your friends? Will we be able to easily return to the same chatting space with the same people if we say... closed the window and came back?
Answer: Towns will still be as social as ever.
I'm not sure what will happen if you close the window and come back. You may see the same people or not, but you can always find someone using the gps, so if you know how you were talking to, you can get there. Also houses and neighborhoods are not affected by these server/room rules.
Question 2: Hello and thank you for keeping in touch with your users :]
I was just curious if the attention focus on Towns 2.0 is why some particular issues with Towns 1.0 might not be top priority right now.
For example when I enter my house in Towns now, it's very laggy whereas before it was as smooth as any other virtual space. Not sure if it has anything to do with it, but I recently upgraded the size to the largest just for fun. I haven't added anymore more furniture or anything, so I'm curious if the size is the only reason it's bothered now. I don't really want to remove items just so it can be smooth again and I can't really 'downgrade' the size now :{o
I've tried clearing the cache... Maybe this is a problem only for certain browsers or certain versions of flash? I have Firefox and the latest version Flash Player installed.
Edit: Something I decided to try and see what happens. I try entering others' houses and it never even loads! It stays stuck on '100% sweeping the floor'.
I was also curious if the Homes editor feature of being able to have the main lights on or off would be returning in Towns 1.0 or 2.0. Currently we can turn on and off the decor lights, but now the room is dark or normally lit based on the time of day in the Towns world. I miss being able to have the main lights on even at night!
Thank you if you can get around to answering my questions :]
Answer 2: We have stop fixing things in Towns 1, as it is such a short time before we release the updates for Towns 2. Some of the houses get stuck at 100% if the person has not updated the house in the last year. I'll see what I can do about the lights.
Question can be found on Page 49.
Question: A new town! quite a surprise after months of hiatus My first impression of the town is awesome since I always discuss with my old gaian friends ways back when on how the gaia town should really should look like a town. It feels like a dream come true so thanks for that. By the way, are those buildings accessible in the future and I keep hearing you can still collect flowers and bugs, but I don't have a clue where to look for them
Overall, loving it and yes, a garden is a must
Answer: The bugs, houses, and other parts of the new towns will be added by the first of the year. I'll see what I can do about gardens.
Question can be found on Page 52.
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