Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 11:47 am Posts: 40 Location: Brookings, Oregon USA
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If the community grows (in population) as I hope it will, we will need multiple shards to spread out the space between people.
Seriously, I see no problems with multiple shards. Most people like variety and they will go to more than one shard all of the time. There is no kind of comparison between what we can now have and what UU was. None at all, the differences will be like night and day. Diversity is a good thing, especially in a growing community.
How a shard operates and the Ages it hosts will be up to the shard owner (or server operators in a cluster of shards). Will it be IC or OOC, or a combination of both? Will it be canon or will it be the wild west? Things like this will be decisions made on a per shard basis, as it should be. If people come and like what they see, they will return. If not then they won't. Voting with your feet can be quite effective in setting (and resetting) shards standards, so don't discount that effect.
Having run a UU for several years, I know that I would let IC and OOC co-exist if they wish to, but I will host Ages that I like or that the regular visitors request and I agree. If I decide to join with others and form a clustered shard, it would then be a group decision to make.
One problem in the past was the UserKI and AdminKI. Hacking of the former and pursuit of the latter caused endless problems in UU. Now we can control what runs on a shard so it would be up to the shard owner(s) to decide what, if any, KI mods will be allowed. Since this is the case, and since I know that the AdminKI was not only a good tool but a source of endless (and mindless) fun when bored, I would allow all users to have one. With some conditions, of course.
What?! The code we fought so long to keep under wraps available to the 'commoners'. Yes, but with conditions. For example, I would allow a user full control over their Ages with any number of visitors present. The Age owner would be allowed to designate one person in that Age the same control (helps to have more than one on hand at times...lol). In public Ages, I would allow a user to have AdminKI controls as long as there are three or fewer players in that Age. To protect against abuse, I would allow all users to have a 'veto' command in their KI so if they are in an Age and being harassed by someone (one on one, two on one or one on two situations in public Ages), that one user can stop all AdminKI commands of the other person(s) in that public Age.
This is just a 'for example', not an absolute plan although I am seriously considering it. There are some pretty humorous people who have had an AdminKI and have done some hilarious stuff with it. Want to flip your friend 90 degrees, warp the smoke particles over and rotate them like they are roasting on a spit? Ever try to run the cone maze? How about altering the sky so it looks like a peaceful evening sunset? Granted, the AdminKI is not 'canon', but I know there would be a lot of people who would like some controls over their own Ages.
I can't argue with that. After all, they are their Ages, right? 
_________________ This space still for rent... Price? World peace. Pull that off and it is all yours...
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