Thursday, November 29, 2007

Caledon forums redux

What a complete and utter joke. Apparently, someone mentioned to Excalibur that the boards were considered a clique' (Excalibur, feel free to mention me if you were indeed referring to me...I don't HIDE things I say behind locked forums. I stand by what I say, right or wrong.) since you must sign up to read. So, the forum admin puts up a poll. And of course the clique' members rush to post NO! They cite the wonderfully bogus reason of the privacy of their conversations from search engines. So far, I have not seen a single conversation that anyone would give a damn about there, let alone one needing privacy from search engines.

Caledon FIC....the only term I can think of....best describes this group of fanatics hiding their little mutual admiration society behind locked doors. What have they got to hide? What is so bad if someone using a search engine seess that 'FIC Caledonian' is holding the 1x10^23rd ball of the year? Or holding a book reading? Or has new items at their store? It is not like anyone is going to be able to connect the basement-dwelling paranoid 'John/Jane Doe' with their character of 'FIC Caledonian', so why all the paranoia?

My disgust level with my fellow Caledonians increases yet again. :(


You know, I have a domain name....I *ORIGINALLY* created a Caledon website and forums LONG before the caledonforums existed (I took it down when Desmond told me he would rather have control over that himself and had someone working on a website for him), I may revise it, put it back up and have the 'FREE Caledon Forums' where those willing to stand behind their words can post AND where (like the New Babbage forums) ANYONE can read it. I am not big on FIC and FIC sites....and I know I am not the only one that feels that way.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Venting: Theme, people, theme!

This is a rant. If it offends anyone, I am sorry. But I am very blunt and I don't smile and sugar words...politician I am not. Disclaimer done.


---------If easily offended, do not read below this line -------------

Caledon is SUPPOSED to be victorian / steampunk. MANY of the residents wouldn't know this if it bit them dead-square on the ass! Did a fly around the various sims. And was really disgusted.

THEME AND ERA! Two players built airfields. Now, I would expect steampunk here....zeppelins, ornithopters, weird steam or electrical flyers of various kinds. What do I find? WWI fighters (Cubey Terra in one case). For god's sake folks, be creative! A WWI fighter (or even a wright brothers replica) is out of period/theme for BOTH steampunk and victorian! If you want WWI planes, find a WWI airfield!

And over in port Caledon, right next to my store...a little apartment complex / shops for rent that looks like 'the projects' in most cities. Entire lot paved over, houses that do NOT look victorian in the least (nice boxes to maximize land use for rental. Yep, really in theme / era...NOT!.

There were many more examples, one or two in each sim. Folks, look around...if its out of place compared to the neighbors, its outta place!


LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! Another wonderful thing...folks cannot even follow the SIM THEME! For example, Caledon and C2 are supposed to be rural/small villages. Someone builds a seriies of 3 and FOUR story row houses along the main road. WTF? Perfect for Caledon VictoriaCity or Penzance.....WAY TO HELL OUT OF PLACE IN CALEDON 2! *sigh* this eyesore replaced a NICE estate home and beautiful garden which were perfectly themed for Caledon 2.

Same thing in Caledon (prime) A four-story, not even vaguely victorian 'store'....people, glass was expensive back then, one whole wall of this eyesore is glass! And I won't even touch the gigantic pile of books blight nearby...other than to say this is NOT the kind of sculpture victorians would do...nor is it steampunk. Want books? Build a library that fits theme!

When I first came to caledon, I was told other than City areas (port cal, VC, etc) NOT TO FILL THE ENTIRE PLOT. make the house fit in. Think people....if all the other houses are 1-2 stories, don't put up a frigging 4-5 story building...it doesn't fit in! If everyone else has greenspace on their lot, don't build something that takes every square meter of the plot! It doesn't fit in with the rest of the sim!

I've wanted to build a small factory for quite a while. Considered taking down my Lodge in Caledon Prime and building there....but it doesn't fit the area and would be an eyesore to the Dog Trainers and the residence to either side of me, so I leave it a lodge building. Sometimes, you just HAVE to put others ahead of yourself and NOT build what you want. The mentality of 'I paid for it, its mine to do as I want' is the REASON the mainland looks as it does.

TRASH AND DEBRIS: Yesterday, I even heard Desmond having to remove signage that blocked a players's access to his lot. BLOCKED HIS LOT! What the hell were you thinking? People, for christ sakes, your pisssant ball or poetry reading is NOT THAT IMPORTANT! I'd LOVE to stick up store advertisements and such, but guess what? I value the look of CALEDON over my own profits or sense of importance! Stop trashing up the place and then getting militant when Desmond cleans up. He publically stated sign complaints (and this isn't me, I gave up after the in-crowd savaged me on the Caledon forums) are eating up HOURS each week. It is also unfar to Desmond to waste his time to clean up messes YOU should not have made in the first place!

OTHER SIMILAR SIMS: Some of you, I have heard, wonder about future growth....compared to New Babbage and Antiquity sim groupings. Guess what? THOSE sims have ENFORCED ZONING and players that put theme, era and general appearance ahead of their own little wants. My god, how hard is it to look around and go 'hrm, my building doesn't REALLY fit the area....it is [to tall /too full a plot / architecture does not fit the era or area / etc.]. How hard is it to think of CALEDON first...before 'my ball, which happens to be the 2x10^21st ball of the year, and it must be advertized EVERYWHERE' and blocking lot access with signs?

Want to see a good use of theme and keeping similar appearances? Go to New Babbage. While I dislike the Victorian grunge look of the place (far too dirty and squalid for my tastes, I prefer an idealized and CLEANER steampunk/victorian)...the buildings work well with their neighbors (similar height, styles) and are either victorian themed or steampunk....no modernistic 'apartment complexes' or 'tree houses in a city', no 'medieval castles in town' type of thing. Steelhead also does a very good job of staying in the proper time period and styles. Go there, look, learn. And rebuild. :)

CONCLUSION: We have something great in Caledon....but some of the residents seem hell-bent on turning it into 'mainland lite' by totally ignoring theme and general appearance of the place. Desmond is a nice person, he gave us guidelines and (in the absence of hard rules) some of you tossed them to the wind and did what you want. C'mon people, I KNOW you can do better than what I saw tonight while out flying.....try to LIVE UP to the theme, try to follow the guidelines for Caledon, and let us all make Caledon the BEST it can be....not 'mainland lite'.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Expedition in a box..

Currently working on a new project, the 'Expedition in a Box'. Think of this as a child's playset, but for adult players. It will allow players to quickly set up a 'base camp' in places such as the darkest mainland. It will ship with the following items.....

2 large tents.
4 folding cots, w/poses.
4 folding chairs, w/poses.
Folding map table with maps.
Assorted sizes of supply crates & Barrels.
Firepit, /sculpted rocks & light effects.
Flagpole and user-modifiable flexi flag.
4 lanterns, scripted to light at night.
Spyglass, unscripted.
Sextant, unscripted.
Animal hide on stretching rack.

Everything was built last night except the tents, lanters, sextant and hide rack. Going to work on that tonight and try to roll it out either tonight or Thanksgiving day/evening. No idea on pricing at this point. Will have to think about that.

Monday, November 19, 2007

New days, new devices

The last major projects have been completed. I updated my steam combat armor with no flag and Union Jack to have user-selectable rank insignia on the shoulder, as well as created an enlisted / NCO set (silver, no pictures).

For the special 'Caledon Resident' armor, I added a flexi flash just below the officer rank insignia AND a flexi 'sash' hanging from the left hip of the unit. As a complement to this, I built two variants and colorized the enlisted version to create a 'color sergeant' armor.

Peactime Color Sergeant - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin/2036948728/
Combat Color Sergeant - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin/2036947482/


In addition I have created an Ornithopter, based roughly in shape off a dragonfly. Two variants have been completed, the unarmed Dragonfly Ornithopter Scout, and the armed 'bomber' version ... which can drop 1 bomb every 5 seconds. Both have flapping wings, moving pistons and smoke effects. The later comes with a HUD for releasing bombs.

Ornithopter in flight - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin/1822267546/

Salute to the Troops, Steelhead

Ah, I have not had this much fun in ages. I visited Steelhead, strictly to see if Old Glory Sutlery had come out with the new Confederate officer's uniform. Walked right into the setup for the 'Salute to the Troops' event. 7th Cavalry out of steelhead had a camp, as did the confederates farther on down. There was even a moving reading of a WWI soldier's letter home.

Later that afternoon, there was an infantry parade. While not officially in any unit (except the rather tiny one I made for my steam armor), I marched with Col. Pearse as part of the Caledon Highlands Regiment. Later, they held a mounted parade. The Caledon Lancers put on a BEAUTIFUL showing, with 8 units in attendance! Col. Pearse again made a showing with the Caledon Carntaigh Curassiers, and I once again suited up!

Old Glory ended up releasing their Confederate officer uniform, which I was apparently the first to purchase. Quite nice an outfit. Ended up fitting Mr. Fizz's (Fizzworks) LeMat pistol to it for a more complete look.

Pictures from the event are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin