Safari Gets Gruggy

 Ozone grid was the scene of our final tour this season, and Spax Orion's two talking pigeons gave us the intro talk to his brand new project, aimed at encouraging more games in Opensim. 

It was a quick rez when we arrived directly at the game arena rather than the main landing Point on Atrius region. True, we missed seeing Dirty Helga at her receptionists' desk, but it meant we could dedicate all our visit to learning about IMAGE.

Spax Orion: make yourselves at home and I will wake up the birds

Thirza Ember: /me shakes the biker grit from my hair

Spax Orion: careful, the service androids are on strike

James Atlloud: should we go to the chairs?

Forest Azure: /me looks around for something to clean.. anything?

James Atlloud: You should travel with a towel Forest.

Guano Pigeon: shouts: Welcome to Ozone Miniverse @ xoaox.de OK... so now that your are here, settle down while we explain some VERY IMPORTANT details *** The GAME BOARD is DISABLED until we are ready to begin this exercise. *** Is Exercise a dirty word? *** Someone gave me a funny look!

James Atlloud: fertilizer

Petlove.Petshop: are we supposed to change to a smaller size?

Stool Pigeon: Luckily, NO TOUR RIDE THIS TIME,,, Seating 25 avatars on one target did not break any Opensim records but it did have some intriguing side effects. We promise not to send anyone swimming on this visit, *flaps tail feathers* we have something else in mind...

Guano Pigeon: I Live for Unexpected Surprises! *** Today... YOU get to try the VERY START of what we are HOPING TO BE an EXPANDING game framework!

Stool Pigeon: Before we can further develop this game, WE NEED A STRESS TEST!

Guano Pigeon: Some of you may be asking, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BETA? *** Spax collected enough data to correct MOST critical bugs. Touch the KNOWN ISSUES box next to Stool to find out more. IT FINALLY WORKS! The IMAGE MATRIX ACTION GAME ENGINE is a MODULAR drop-in gaming system which works around you. it is not for the faint of heart, IMAGE is a robust suite of software with features and guardrails baked in. NO MESSY config notecards, everything you need is inside the scripts.

Stool Pigeon: This is not a game a resident can drop on their parcel and play, this is for Operators who can follow directions and feel comfortable with changing coordinates and other settings in the code.

Thirza Ember: good. We are terrible with Notecards.

James Atlloud: what's a notecard again?

Guano Pigeon: Spax uses the term MODULAR because he intends to keep making plug-ins for it. This dialog you are watching now is powered by one such module. More on that in a few moments...

Stool Pigeon: Most importantly::: Spax NEEDS active participants & testers. He wants to make this the most comprehensive and useful game engine for open grids. IMAGE is built on top of the Stable 0.9.2.1 Yeti RELEASE (Unix mono on Xe) aiming for solid, forward compatibility.

Guano Pigeon: Having an RPG element or quest giver could make things fun. IMAGE was built to make worlds come to LIFE. We can always use FEEDBACK! You can usually interact with Spax inworld. Visit the gaming thread on Opensimworld or visit our blog https://opensimliving.blogspot.com

Stool Pigeon: I'm BORED, So tired of seeing empty towns, empty streets or malls of database bloat. Where is the creativity? Our goal is to make Opensim FUN! 

Nine Zero: amen

Forest Azure: yay!

Thirza Ember: more games!

Stool Pigeon: Spax had an old zombie skull game from the 0.8x era and talked it over with Dirty Helga, she concluded that it would be better to build an entirely new game from scratch using core zombie shooter logic as a reference. You are seeing another demonstration: *** 'IMAGE iMinstrel' with a plugin called: 'mCadence'. *** We needed surgical precision in storytelling; so, Spax and Helga made a BRAND NEW NPC framework...  iMinstrel silently observes the arena, it is not connected to the game board in any way, neither are WE.... When the game starts, iMinstrel tells me and Guano to play a short notecard skit.

Guano Pigeon: THEN the real fun begins, mCadence takes over our functions and routes us over the playing field! Our mission? To STEAL your points! Ha Ha! AND...On this grid, PIGEONS NEVER LOSE!

Thirza Ember: grrr get me a cat

James Atlloud: A BIG cat

Guano Pigeon: IMAGE IS IN FIRST RELEASE status! Today, Spax would love it if he can watch you guys play this game for a little while so we can evaluate the system under pressure. See the QUICKSTART prim... the one with blue arrows pointing at it. Most grids will only have maybe '1 to 5' players at a given time, but what if someone has a GRUG PARTY like this one? Lets see what happens!

Petlove Petshop: What's our objective?

Thirza Ember: the obective is to kill the grugs I think

Petlove Petshop: ah ok

Guano Pigeon: Each game mode has custom music, try them ALL -AND- We will JOIN YOU!

Thirza Ember: I'm going to stand in the spectator box... close to the action, but not in the kill zone LOL

Nine Zero: ok, i will try not to die

Spax Orion:  PLEASE. READ THE QUICKSTART.... IT TELLS YOU HOW TO PLAY and what to do if you get a permission error.  FOR SCIENCE (There is a valid reason for this) I will be observing this TEST as 'Zax Zorin'. 

At first, the Grugs were showing up grey for me, maybe due to lag. This didn't happen when there were just two or three people in the arena, so it may have been due to the stress of a dozen players all in one place. I soon found that if  I clicked on them I could render them fully - if I could catch them!

Zax Zorin:  The game is active for those of you who are ambitious. I can take questions, but my higher priority is watching you guys play the game and see how it handles a little stress.  SUGGESTION: Go one at a time to get weapons then after we have a small armed group we can fire up FEAST MODE. Once in feast mode, it is continuous, it ends when there are no agents in the arena.  While a game mode is running, YOU CAN enter the Arena and accept permissions for the weapon.  Enter Mouselook (m) and FIRE WEAPON (left mouse button)

Nine Zero: where's the guns?

Angelic Kisses: this is so cool to watch....i need popcorn!

Nine Zero: i neeeed a gun

SoA BAD escapes the grugs with pure charisma

Grug ....:Gnaws Taarna.Welles's Nose

Grug ....: Grinds Taarna.Welles's Stomach

Thirza Ember: oh Taarna that's not good

Angelic Kisses: RUUUUUNN  it's chomping on all of you!!!!

Zax Zorin: tell me that is NOT HELLAVA lotta fun!

Roffellos Kisses: need a gun!

Zax Zorin: I found a major bug.... there is so many players the game is having a hard time keeping track of all of the scores, you will remember when we played at Dismayland, Thirza, that was not the case!

Thirza Ember: Go Nine Go!!!

Zax Zorin: the game is holding up great and is very usable

Stool Pigeon: You might as well toss out those clothes. this will not wash out!

Guano Pigeon: shouts: AWWW!!! GAME OVER!!!

Forest Azure: did .. eh.. we? .. win?

We did identify a few issues, some no doubt caused by there being a lot of us, some known bugs. The scoreboard was giving an inaccurate kill count, and some of the players were struggling to get mouselook to work, or to get an attached weapon. But on the whole, despide these issues that will no doubt soon be ironed out, the game kept working even with a bunch of newbies trying it.

Thirza Ember: omg I saw the scoreboard....Taarna Welles 47!!!!

Angelic Kisses: that was so cool to see

Taarna Welles: I don't get it. No mouselook at all

Forest Azure: but but but.. were we shooting at all?

Taarna Welles: I don't know

James Atlloud: I was shooting.. I think before I crashed.

Danger is James' middle name.

Thirza Ember: definitely LOL

Taarna Welles: How do I get into mouselook?  M doesn't work

Thirza Ember: this is our opportunity to test the game and give feedback

Angelic Kisses: I want a grug plushie to take home!!   they're so cute.  lol

Grug ....: Crunches Roffellos.Kisses @hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002's Nose

Grug ....: Grinds Roffellos.Kisses @hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002's Nose

Grug ....: Slurrps Roffellos.Kisses @hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002's Hand

Angelic Kisses: RUN ROFF!!!

Thirza Ember: naturally, having so many people here, the game is going to be a bit stressed, but that's what Spax needs to know from us all, what things worked, and what didn't

Yara ready to play

Grug ....: Chews Forest.Azure @hg.osgrid.org's Ear

GRUG FALL DOWN... NEW GRUG COME UP, HA HA!

Grug ....: GRUG ASSAULT OVER! TIME UP!

Guano Pigeon: shouts: AWWW!!! GAME OVER!!!

Nine Zero: more grug

Thirza Ember: don't do grugs, kids

Guano Pigeon: shouts: HURRY! Return to the presentation area for THE VERDICT!

Stool Pigeon: shouts: Uh oh! Spax is Deleting the scenery! THIS MUST MEAN VERY BAD NEWS!

Guano Pigeon: YAWN!!! Wake up, Thirza, almost time to go home!

Stool Pigeon: shouts: CONGRATULATIONS HG SAFARI *** You have Just been a part of the OFFICIAL IMAGE LAUNCH PARTY!

Nine Zero: woohoooo

Guano Pigeon: That means you all will be the first to get a copy of IMAGE to bring home and customize!

Stool Pigeon: IMAGE is a gift to the community and it need to stay that way, CC by-NC. And please remember READ THE README. If you do not follow directions, you WILL get unintended consequences.

Thirza Ember: oh we love to customize!

Nine Zero: what? you get a game, you get a game, you get a game....oprah!

James Atlloud: Is IMAGE an acronym? did I miss that?

Nine Zero: I am ecstatic!

Nine Zero showing some serious skills 

Stool Pigeon: Spax is SHUTTING OFF the scripts in the machine and changing its permissions so you ALL can take a copy with you today. EXAMINE THE ENTIRE LINKSET Everything you need to run IMAGE is IN THERE... you just played it

Thirza Ember: a new project for everyone

Guano Pigeon: You are bringing home the GAME ENGINE PRE-CONFIGURED, You will need to make a new arena and give it YOUR coordinates. Change the monsters or the music! Make YOUR OWN GAME with YOUR OWN RULES! Enjoy!

Spax Orion: I will be releasing patches on opensimworld in 2 days

Nine Zero: Thank you Spax, incredibly generous

James Atlloud: pretty impressive

Spax Orion: IMAGE is yours now, customize it and make it fun. More modules will be forthcoming, I just need FEEDBACK!  I have a lot of free time on my hands and if anyone else has free time, and wants to learn or even better, contribute to the IMAGE project, lets talk. I find CODING CHAOS to be quite therapeutic... It would be nice to have a think-tank of sorts... Helga is a GREAT assistant but her opinions arrive whether you want them or not. LOL!

Forest fires on the enemy

You can ask questions and give feedback in three different places. You can do so on Spax's Blog, you can send him a notecard or IM him on his grid, or you can join the Opensim Scripters Group on Opensimworld and communicate there.

Spax Orion: I wish I could have seen the show the way you guys got to see it...

 Angelic Kisses: this game is so much fun, Spax.  Thank you for allowing us to try it out.

James Atlloud: I'm getting height warning - I may be gon.... thanks Spax if I don't make it back.

Forest Azure: i'm not tall at all!

Roffellos Kisses: not sure what or where to purchase copy ?

Thirza Ember: You don't buy it roff, he is giving it for free

James Atlloud: Hey Thirza and everyone - quite a Finale!!

Nine Zero: yay - got it, Spax. You rock!!!

James Atlloud: okey

Forest Azure: for in my npc playground :)

Spax Orion: everyone who wants a copy please DM me and I will give it to you... this is meant to be FULL PERM. And keep an eye out on Opensimworld.  In the script area I will publish some updates to the scoreboard AND the error which allowed grugs outside the game zone.

James Atlloud: This is very compelling Spax.

Taarna Welles: Thanks Spax! for the copy. Now my greedyness is filled with joy.

Thirza Ember: omg Taarna will have a Harry Potter style game before the end of the summer I bet

Taarna Welles: ha ha ha would be nice Thirza. Kill the spiders.

Thirza Ember: wow what  lovely finale, thanks to our amazing hosts. Safari begins again on April 1, so only a short break

Taarna Welles: Fools day ha ha ha

Alex Salamander: Thanks very much :-)

Forest Azure: yes, thank you Spax.. but i feel a bit overnibbled on now

Nine Zero: be safe everyone

Angelic Kisses: Have a wonderful afternoon all!!

Forest Azure:       ☀..·♬·..•✶•..·♬·..☀

Forest Azure: ✯˜*•.  ɊǷǷﺎﻣɊƲՏȻ  .•*˜✯

Forest Azure:      ☀..·♬·..•✶•..·♬·..☀

 HG Address: xoaox.de:7000:Atrius