Kero wrote:
I want only one client - one point to get into the game and just one download of the basic Cyan Ages and those Fan made Ages that I have chosen to keep on my Relto book shelf.
So do I.
Kero wrote:
What I want to do is be able to put my hand on one of those Fan books and go to the Age as seamlessly as I would go to Kadish or Minkata. I don't want to have to log off of one server and onto another just so I can visit a Fan made Age.
All ages (eventually) in one data server repository. [Nothing to do with the O-S code]
Kero wrote:
Throughout all this I want to be able to communicate with my friends - no matter where they are - as easily as we did in MO:UL. I also want the ability to invite folks to my Relto and into any Age - Cyan or Fan - on my bookshelf as easily as we did in MO:UL.
This sounds like an (IM) extension to the client.
Kero wrote:
Now, I realize fully that the URU I want to play is the "canon" version that was created by Cyan with Fan Ages added. I also realize that there are all kinds of "versions" of the game that are possible - including ones where ordinary folks can fly and sport purple skin, not just purple hair.

Truth is, I would be curious to visit these various "versions" just to see what they've come up with but not if it means that I have to download - again and again -
the complete game. Agreed - but you never had to do that in UU. There was a vnode_cache folder for each shard you visited to hold the changes, but the basic initial download was unchanged. [You still had to log out of one shard and into another: setting up the new vault may mean that has to continue]
Kero wrote:
...another "discovered" Nexus - that I can access through a book on my Relto shelf or in my Neighborhood - that will take me to all those various "versions" of URU as seamlessly as the current Nexus takes me to the Ferry Terminal.
Single or linked data servers (back to the repository idea). The problem is again the vault.
Kero wrote:
Now - back to Fan made Ages. I want to be able to visit all of the ones offered (within reason - more on that later) and if I decide that I like one enough to keep I can then add it to my Relto bookshelf. The only way I can see to access all offered Ages at least once is a third Nexus - or maybe a section of the Guild hall - newly opened - where we find shelves loaded with all kinds of linking books (Fan Ages) there for us to try. And going to them is just as seamless as going to Minkata for the first time from the Library. Again - I would want to be assured that trying one of these Ages would not crash my computer - or add a trojan/virus. The difficulty will come - I'm sure - in what happens with the downloaded data of an Age I decide I don't like and don't want to keep. How would I be able to delete that data from my hard drive without causing a glitch in the game?
That sounds like tools build into the delivery of the age when you choose to download it. Here again, the problem might not be getting the age set up, but actually playing it.
Kero wrote:
Now comes something that I think needs to be addressed. Let's face it. As much as many of us want to keep the family friendly version of URU that we've all come to know and love - once Open Source gets really going - there will be Ages and "versions" of the game offered that we might to varying degrees find offensive if not down right disgusting. So - one thing that will have to be addressed if a "golden trunk" version of the tree - such as I presented above - is actually possible, would be how to offer access to such Ages/versions yet at the same time give parents the ability to block said access to their kids, should they so choose. Also - I personally would like a way to know the content of an Age being offered on that Guild bookshelf before I visit it. This is so that if I find the content offensive or otherwise not to my liking I won't have to go through the trouble of download and then deletion.
I don't know about a golden trunk, but I did suggest earlier a rating system for the age, where (E) or (M) or (10) was part of the description, so you knew what you were getting before you downloaded it, and that a directory of all ages and their ratings was held by the GoMe.
I realised that in all of my replies to Kero I was envisaging an external delivery tool (like ULM) - you build your game before you play it. That way you should have add / modify / delete options on the age you chose. The other side to that is that you'd only see that age in relto / nexus after the fact.
Thanks, Kero.