Leyspring Building Academy - moving forward

We've got a whole lot of academy work to do in the upcoming weeks, and it would be good to get a permanent team together to help nail down some specifics of the future of this project.

Items on the agenda (I will be scheduling a meeting to discuss these items in the next week):

• We need to get a commitment on 5+ workshops we plan on offering including finding instructors for them (there are some changes to the format we need to discuss as well so we can be more effective moving forward).
  
• I would like for us to set up a dedicated research team for testing and developing new building methods, creating consistent language for describing techniques, and setting up a system that allows for others to get involved. We have the right people here to really set the bar and lead the discussion on voxel building for the entire landmark community.
  
• I have a fledgling plan for anticipating obsolescence of the Workshop/Class system by developing a new player Guide system to replace it. This is going to take a lot of work.
  

As I mentioned, I'll schedule a meeting, but those of you who are interested in this project, please think a little bit about these topics. I'll post more information as I have time.

For the research team, I'm in 100%.  For me, that's business as usual.

I don't know what you have in mind for a Player Guide, but I don't think anything will take the place of a scheduled time that people can show up to get questions answered.

Looking forward to the meeting.

I don't imagine that scheduled time and place would be permanently removed, and I agree that it has significant value in the game world. The concern is that as the game community matures, attendance for the workshops could decline significantly.

The thought is to create a separate program that gives new players the opportunity to join a small group with a mentor who is able to ask questions outside of the structured time, so that we are able to be a real game resource in the long-term. It will also give us a marketing platform for any workshops/expos/symposiums we want to hold as structured events which will likely end up occurring less frequently or perhaps just cover a larger variety of topics.

The point is that I want to have another teaching avenue, which in a way is obsolescence planning, but at the same time it will work alongside the system we've already begun. It will also allow the workshops to focus on some more advanced techniques since the workshops most likely to lose attendance are the beginner topics.

Once we can get in-game *crosses fingers*, let's plan a meeting time.

If needed I can try and put together a Creative Prop Usage, Or Creating a Mood workshops. Not the easiest thing in the world to try and teach someone to be creative, but I should be able to develop some exercises. If you can get 5 other classes though I can certainly wait on doing this, as I already have my hands pretty full as it is.

Research, defiantly not my strong suit won't be much use there.

Guide program. I would be will to do this on a fluid schedule as my load permits. But I am hesitant to commit to any kind of schedule with this until we see how things start playing out.

Will think on it more for the meeting

Once the "New Player Guides" have a rough draft, I'm happy to read through them and essentially 'playtest' them from the initiate's point of view.

As I get up to speed on some of the various techniques that folks here are really mastering, I'm happy to contribute anyway I can, whether its being a gopher for Materials, dumping a few bucks into paypal to help support the Vent, or whatever.

Hi all,

Can't wait to start working with you all, sorry I haven't posted yet as I've been busy as I'm sure you all have been too to get back to the level of equipment and supply to be able to build again and utilize all tools.

With that said, I would like to be able to come and visit at least once this weekend, and get to know who is who and what the plans are, count me in to help/assist/develop and teach!

I'll set up vent later today maybe tomorrow to get in chat with you all!

GD13,
aka : Draconious

This course list needs review (missing/misnamed/merge), and courses need descriptions, and they all need teachers. Volunteers?



Working on terms list next, then course descriptions.

Terms in progress...
• Voxel Grid – The grid over the world, for which corners are intersections and voxels are the boxes formed between them.
o Corner – Intersections of the Voxel Grid.
 Player Corner – A corner whose position is specified by the player
 Merged Corner – A corner whose position is not specified by the player
 Corner Space – The space in which a corner’s position can be.
 Corner Space Grid – The boxes of this grid are where corner’s positions can be.
 Moving – Changing the position of a corner.
o Edge – Line segment between adjacent corners in the Voxel Grid
o Side – A rectangular surface between four edges and four corners that is rendered and whose texture is determined by the assigned material.
 Material – The texture used to render a Voxel.
• Air – A material that is not rendered
• Player Material – A material specified by a player
• Merged Material – A material not specified by the player
• Resource – Something that is required to assign a material to a Voxel.
o Voxel – Volume defined by 8 corners and 12 edges that connect them in the Voxel Grid
 Standard Voxel – The smallest cubic shape placed by the Add tool. A cubic voxel whose corners are aligned with the World Grid
 Micro Voxel – A voxel whose 8 corners are inside a standard voxel’s volume.
 Warping – Changing the shape of a voxel by moving its corners (e.g. placing a voxel next to it).
• World Grid – The grid displayed by the selection tool.
o World Corner – Intersections of the World Grid.
o World Edge – Line segment between adjacent corners in the World Grid
o World Voxel – Volume defined by 8 corners and 12 edges that connect them in the World Grid
• Adding, Deleting, Healing, Selecting, Smoothing, etc. – use of respective tools.
• Owner – The features of the world that are specified by a player are owned by that player.
• Building Technique – A method for building in landmark
o These can have any name, go with what’s popular.