As the title suggests, I am sure everyone here has struggled with their build going through the headaches of their walls/canvas textures/art being taken down, or no longer being visible. I have a solution for that, but it’s more than just a solution. Much more.
Backstory: I played a game, back in… 2006/2007 It was called Kaneva, the game had similar aspects to TU, just much older technology. But i will say they did great with a few things. The community was very tight nit. there were groups, and these groups would band together, build clubs (in their condos) and invite friends to parties, and just mess around, talking and having fun. Kind of like TU, but the community was much larger. They had interactive dance floors, that when you initiated on it, a “DANCE DANCE Revolution” style mini game would pop up. And people hosting parties, would hold dance competitions, if you mess up and fall, your out and the last person standing would win a prize. just a fun little way to bring people over to your condo, little prize incentives.
But larger than that, getting into the main topic, they had a community hub if you will, a social media platform. In the boom of Myspace, and the up and coming Facebook at the time, they had a nice little area where people could talk to their in game friends, they each had individual profiles, where you can share pictures, or advertise parties, share links to your different builds/clubs (snapshots) But the best thing about this entire entity, was the way you can source textures, or images from other people.
You essentially, create, design, or make your own textures, and upload them onto your profile. You name it, and select if you want the image to be shared privately, or publicly, or with friends (in this case you can create a whitelist of who you want to share them with) but essentially, these shared textures would be accessed, in game all you do is type the texture you are looking for. Brick wall, and then all of a sudden you have thousands of different brick wall textures, uploaded by other people. And these images being hosted on the game, would not need to worry about the URL’s expiring, changing, or disappearing.
Additionally it would allow people to go to your profile, and like, or up vote your texture, or images etc.
Another thing that was pretty big, was the customization of your avatar. I know right now a lot of the people like using workshop avatars, but If ever you get to a point where you can customize your character, and change their clothes. you can implement a way for people to design their own clothing via paint, or whatever other programs they want to use. All that would be needed is the clothing template, then you can put it in paint, blender, whatever you want to stylize and change your own clothing. Or, put it up for sale in your own community store. Allowing people to be able to earn units (or a special new currency) specifically for trading, and buying clothing from each other.
just an couple ideas to build off of, doesn’t have to be this specifically but hoping it gets those creative juices flowing to create something great for the community.
Honorable mention, would be cool to implement a way to access computers within your condo’s to access this community website, or via cell phone. Kind of like how you can use arcade games or emulators to play your favorite games, IN GAME, this would bring social media into the game allowing others to connect with each other even if they aren’t within the same condo. Shoot a friend a message through a messenger app in your phone, or log into your computer at your condo to advertise a party. Etc, it brings a certain immersive roleplay element to the game while also being very useful.
Another thing that i would like to see, would be the ability to name your snapshots, for example (The Twisted Castle) And allow people to upload an image to the snapshot, so that way it doesn’t say “dirt” and show a flat image, u can show the icon of the club, with the clubs title. When you host your condo, you can type “join the party!” and it says condo name + image of the location, to appeal to people to want to come and visit.
Anyways, this is a lot to take in, sorry for the book. I hope this finds someones eye, and gives them some ideas. I would really love to see these find there way into the game at some point. I am sure its already a lot of work just keeping up with current things, but i believe a couple of these ideas would draw in more people to the game, and breath a new life into the community that the game would thrive off.