I agree with much of what has been said here.
The more replayable content the better, and some such content already exists.
I'd like to see Ayoheek and the Gahreseen wall opened at some point; they don't need to be bug-free at first but they should be accessible and at least marginally playable.
Those are two games that, if made to work, would give players something else fun to do in between releases of worlds.
Not that Jalak, hide and seek, soccer with Dusty/Eddie, and marker games aren't fun already.
But those two make sense because they'd be replayable and they're already at least partly complete anyway.
I think the Minkata sparkly is a high priority for fixing, some of the GOW people have already figured out why it wasn't working so it shouldn't prove too difficult to solve the bug.
I know Cyan is in a difficult place now. They can't manage to do much so they need to emphasize what can be done relatively easily given how few people they have assigned to Uru currently.
The Minkata fix is important; it is fairly easy to implement and has major gameplay benefit.
Ayoheek and the Wall are also not extremely hard because they are partially complete already, and they have major gameplay value.
Porting Myst Island would be great but I don't know how involved it would be. I say, if they give us the RealMyst Myst, they should just block off the elevator entirely as well as any linking book. They can give us RealMyst's Myst in a basic form with the eventual possibility that it will be expanded later on. I understand the feelings we all have about Myst, and the fact that we have a realtime 3d model of it already anyway; but I wouldn't bet on a full-featured Myst Island happening anytime soon.
I personally find the inclusion of Myst to be a low priority, I'd love it but don't think it offers the best bang for the buck given our severely limited Cyan team.
As for Bevin vs. hood, I prefer "Bevin" because it feels more IC, more Myst-ish. It's one of those many little details that remind us that we're in Uru - a place with a rich canon and backstory - and not an ordinary MMO.
Let's see, what else?
Cyan needs to implement a system for UCC. That is absolutely critical. That means a new Nexus or some equivalent, and a place to put that Nexus.
I advocate opening some minor part of the Guild Hall area; we've had it barricaded off completely for years now but if ever there was a time to open some of it, that time would be now, seeing as the guilds are becoming central to the function of the game.
There's a barricade blocking off a hallway right now. That's all we have there at the moment. I like the idea of opening the barricade and having the hall lead to a small but decent-looking open area, a hub of sorts surrounded by auditoriums.
In the more or less circular hub room we'd have a Nexus for UCC ages and five doorways leading into five identical meeting rooms or auditoriums differentiated only by minor decals that indicate which guild belongs in which room. Like the Guild Pubs which were easy for Cyan to do five of because they were all the same 3d model but with texture variations. We don't need many texture variations here to get the idea across, just minimal ones.
The auditoriums aren't even necessary. We could just have closed doors that (we imagine) will one day lead into halls for each guild. What we need then, is a decent-looking room at the end of the Guild Hall hallway with some doors and a UCC Nexus.
One room at the end of the hallway. That's all. One room with a Nexus in it. That and of course some of the textures in the hall itself would need to be replaced with higher resolution ones because as it is now, the distant parts of the hall aren't designed to look good up close.
Then once you have the UCC Nexus, it becomes the center for all UCC ages.
Here's my imagined concept for a UCC Nexus interface:
Sorting tabs on left, allowing for listing by rating, date.
Main panel has a list of age names sorted by whatever sorting method the player clicked on.
Clicking on an age name replaces the age list with a better summary of that one age.
Age Name
Author
Date created
Rating by user votes (and a way for the player to vote) [0-10]
Rating by Guild of Maintainers [0-10]
Thumbnail image [like a linking panel]
Concise description of age by author in a single line length;
[ "Canyon made of ice" "Bizarre coral reef" "Massive stone tower" etc]
After a player has visited the UCC Nexus, a UCC Nexus book appears in their Relto. It links directly to the Nexus for UCC, just like the standard Nexus book links to the standard Nexus for cavern areas.
The pedestals in the city are not used for UCC ages, unless Cyan considers one to be exceptionally good. In the event that a highly rated UCC age genuinely achieves Cyan quality, according to Cyan's judgement, it is made available on a pedestal in the city.
Generally speaking, the pedestals and museum spaces are reserved only for official Cyan content or exceptionally high-quality fan ages. Slots on a Relto bookshelf are also reserved for really good ages; all the others can be accessed indirectly through the UCC Nexus linking book.
What would Cyan need to do to implement a system like this?
-Make a single room at the end of a hallway with a Nexus, maybe a second room that is duplicated five times with texture variations.
-Make a UCC Nexus and Nexus pedestal with the same graphics as an ordinary Nexus.
-Make an interface for the new Nexus.
-Add a single UCC Nexus book to Relto the same way they do with any other linking book.
-And, occasionally, add linking books to fan ages in the city, but not very often because only the really great, Cyan-quality ones would be admitted beyond the UCC Nexus.
Would it take effort on Cyan's part? Yes. But as options go for a UCC system, this one does not seem too difficult for Cyan to implement.
Just my ideas...
_________________
Matthew L. Hornbostel, creator of Panoramic Worlds,
a Myst fansite , and
various other stuff.
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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:48 pm — Post subject: 
