Onverse - Tour of Volcano Island

It's been a while since the last blog, I apologize, but hopefully from the following screen shots you can see that we've been very busy. I wanted to get some world shots out so we could start getting feedback. Our first series shows a lot of new places and features. You can see things from our travel map to one of our character models, but most of all this series is to introduce you to our first Community, tentatively called "Volcano Island".

What is a Community?

Most other VWs out there have the concept of having your own home, most likely a stuffy apartment. We are placing all of our housing in Communities, where you can share that space with many other people. You will still have permissions to allow who you want inside your personal space, but you can hop over your fence and go check out the progress of your friends and neighbors within the same space. Eventually we'd like these Communities to work together as a whole to earn rewards for their Community and move up in the ranks as top spots to visit.

Each Community will have a theme going on, and will have housing architectures and furniture created to compliment that theme (Although people can place any style stuff they want on their land). For Volcano Island, the general theme is an active volcano, surrounded by Mediterranean-esque flora and geothermic activity. A perfect place for beautiful ocean views, exploration and the occational 2 ton molten boulder flying into your roof :).

The Old Safety Line:

Keep in mind we are in an alpha state. Particles, lighting, characters, UI etc all still a work in progress. It's all subject to change by the time you jump in for the first time :). I am very pleased with our progress so far though and wanted to share.

Travel Map:

Here we are jumping into the world and choosing to travel to Volcano Island. I'm selecting Island Plaza as the specific location I'd like to go. You can always pull up your map and travel around the world quickly this way.



Island Plaza:

Here I am, just arrived at Island Plaza. The plaza is just a place for the Community members to get together and will be where we add any type of Community-based structures and events. Here is also our first look at one of our character models.



Plaza Far:

To get a sense of scale, the next shot is the same, only zoomed out into the bay.



My House:

So I'm going to say that my avatar has a house on the Hollow Plains (an area on the island). For the screenshot's sake, I just plopped down a random house from our collection and climbed up onto the balcony. If you live in a community such as this you will have a decent sized plot of land like this with which you can place your house and a number of other objects within your property boundary.



More Houses:

I plopped down some other houses on the plots of land surrounding mine to give you a feel of what it might be like with neighbors. Mine's the one on the top right.



Why is it called the Hollow Plains:

Because.... ahhhh I fell. No, the Hollow Plains is the oldest lava flow surrounding the volcano. There are lava tubes underneath and it looks like I'm not the first one to have fallen down this hole.



So now I am going to quickly use my map to travel around the island and show you some other Points of Interest.

The Knife:

This sandbar has been the doom of many ships. Coupled with The Fork accross the water, you might find lots of old wreckage down in The Sink.



On to Buccaneer Reef and the lighthouse:

The perfect place to get some fresh air, marvel at the beauty of the water or get swallowed by a giant clam.



The Crater:

Up to the top of the volcano. Don't get too close!



Geysers:

The Meadowflow is full of geothermic activity (unfortunately ours are invisible right now :)). Living amongst the giant geysers at Misty Cove, Geyser Beach or Steamwatch are favorite land plots to settle down on.



Kickin' it at the Old Ruins:

I wanted to end my trip in style so I'm breakin' it down at the old ruins. Nobody knows who built the various ruins around the island. Maybe the mystery will become more clear over time.



I hope you enjoyed this tour of our first community. I will continue to keep everyone updated on our progress. Take care for now.

~SMPII