Edit: thanks to korgs posts, I am making this a DRAMA FREE THREAD!
This was written by Torley Torgeson and Oz Spade, with help from Francis Chung, Ryen Jade, Adam Zaius, and Rickard Roentegen.
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Overview
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The Tartarus Project is an immersive cyberpunk gaming experience and community, taking place within an expansive city and its surrounding areas.
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Gaming Experience
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Tartarus will be unique in its presence in Second Life. It will allow players to directly affect the storyline and environment, with a style inspired by games like the Deus Ex and Half-Life series. Puzzles, mission-running, and first-person combat will not only be some of the activities players can do, but can also set up and build for others to do as well.
Use of NPCs will be limited -- instead, other users will roleplay to help progress story lines. Some factions and groups will be setup during testing, allowing players to become part of those or to even start their own. We will be actively involved in the roleplaying process as well, adding depth while setting the mood and tone.
Accordingly, the storyline will be progressive -- flexible and scalable -- and reflect player activities. For replayability, we are allowing a player's large-scale mission to possibly permanently affect the world, and thus become a part of Tartarus's storyline and history.
Tartarus will also feature modified walking and running enhancements to better recreate the feel of FPS combat, giving players better control and a more intuitive feel.
Players will be able to find weapons and other equipment in different ways: buying them from stores or other players, building them themselves, acquiring them on missions, etc.
Weapons will also be component-based, allowing a player to buy a modular "scope" and then attach it to many different weapons that are compatible. The main system used for weaponry will be the Seburo system coding, which has a prominent pedigree in SL history.
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Location
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Tartarus will be set within a cyberpunk-style city and its surrounding areas. The city style will be similar to those depicted in popular cyberpunk books and movies. We will draw on the legacy of the genre's strengths, and contribute our own mythology as we take established cliches and warp them into a fusion of new creativity. While the city will be a grimy, futuristic, and technologically advanced city, faint beams of hope will glimmer through the tall superskyscrapers, unsafe alleys, and dark sewer passages. Via expansion, the surrounding areas will include residential, slummy buildings, and open fields full of debris, as well as more pristine locations as a counterpoint to the chaos.
Ambience will be set in many ways through sounds, sim-controllable aspects, and other visual effects, creating a fully immersive setting for the players.
This isn't just a game: the city will also allow for players to live within the world, providing apartments and other housing for them. Stores, bars and clubs, restaurants, and other buildings expected in such a city will be present in Tartarus, but themed specially for the purpose.
In short: Tartarus will be unlike other locations currently in SL, providing unique settings and a new experience for visitors.
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Developers
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The developers of Tartarus will largely consist of those in the associated Celina and Seventh Circle groups, a veritable thinktank of Second Life creators. What follows is by no means a comprehesive list, but a taste to whet your appetite for the collective talent involved who are committed to the project.
Some members of these groups and their fields of specialty and accomplishments are:
Ryen Jade - Akar, Fallen-Faith Weapons
Bonecrusher Slate - Route 66, Americana, Route 66 vehicles
Kats Kothari - Kats Kreatures
Chosen Few - spaceships in Indigo, the Sci-Fi Museum
Francis Chung - Seburo, Frantastic Jetski, many other scripting achievements
Nick Fairlight - various builds and project involvements
Cornelius Bach - numerous vehicles under the "Bach-Sunchaser" brand
Oz Spade - The Black Sun (a past build), History Project, Atlas, Aleph
Rickard Roentgen - R-Type vehicles, general builds
Adam Zaius - Aleph, Gigas Vendor, SL map, many other scripting achievements
Strife Onizuka - scripter of open-source combat system
Marcos Fonzarelli - ARMORD roboticist, general builds
Torley Torgeson - music & sound design (MP3s and info @ www.torley.com )
In addition, after Tartarus is opened to the public, the players themselves will in large part be developers as well. We are optimistic to take advantage of the things that make Second Life what it is, and to allow the players to help shape the world. We want to embrace this communal spirit: everything from social aspects, storyline, weapons, vehicles, and even location and landscape will be able to be developed in some form by the players themselves.
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Other Features
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Community will bloom, as general Second Life residents and players interact and live within the city.
The economy will be using the Linden Dollar, the Second Life standard. It, of course, allows users to make L$ from gameplay achievements within Tartarus, and is convertable to USD.
Transportation presents many options: users will be able to make standard use of their feet, or choose from a wide selection of different vehicles which will be custom-made for Tartarus. The city will "no-fly" to provide an optimal combat environment, and promote an explorable atmosphere as well as fun use of other transportation methods.
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Visions of the Future
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There is historical mythology surrounding our work. Names such "Tartarus" -- of the Greek underworld -- and "Seventh Circle" -- from Dante's Inferno -- are a sly nod to the great storytelling of civilizations past, as well as to the conflicted drama and contrasted interplay of human beings. As long as humans have lived, stories have been passed down from generation to generation. And while the medium changes, the messages remain the same.
It is said that all science fiction, no matter how distantly set in the future, is really about the present. From Neuromancer to Blade Runner to Ghost in the Shell to The Matrix, the genre of cyberpunk has created a "neomythology" of its own mythos, such as that of the "rogue hacker" or the "conspiracy involving multinational corporations". It is only fitting that such a visionary medium as Second Life, inspired by Snow Crash, be self-referentially celebrated by the Tartarus Project.
One philosophical parallel we are exploring is the juxtaposition between advanced technology and the primal savagery within each and every human. Another curious observation is how we can become more human through technology, expressing ourselves in ways that were unfamiliar to us before. Obviously, there are social ramifications involved with these issues. Observing how Second Life has already positively impacted real lives, such as empowering the disabled to communicate, has led us to the path of wanting to not only provide a cool gaming experience, but a platform for futurist discussion and serious consideration of the following question: "What happens next?"
There is no singular answer. But in paying homage to what has come before and travelling onwards with our ideas, Team Tartarus is hoping to spark inquiry and relevant reaction pertaining to the future-as-present.
We are excited about creating our own stories -- our own mythology, and sharing it via Second Life!
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Challenges
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The Tartarus Project is ambitious, and with its size and scope, is full of challenges. Thankfully, the people involved have an experienced history of excellence within the Second Life community. We come from a diverse plethora of backgrounds, but have a unified vision.
Some of the major challenges will be setting up and maintaining a community, as well as consistent entertainment and an ongoing "wow factor" to keep people coming back for more. The group believes that we can accomplish this, and that allowing the players to participate in the development will help as well. It's a win-win situation, since a strength of SL is the collaboration and the lucidity with which ideas can be shared and realized.
Beyond this, a major challenge is obtaining a dedicated sim in which to house the city. To begin with, one sim should be sufficient to provide a foundation of success for our later endeavors. And further in the timeline, we would like to have the project -- initial city plus future expansion -- span multiple sims.
A credo of Second Life is "Think Big, Build BIGGER". Having come to Second Life to express our creativity and share this joy with others, we're certainly up for the challenge. Being confident that we have overcome the challenges before us and with an exciting roadmap planned, we now look forward to the future for all of us. It's a big place and we need your help.
Thank you graciously for your consideration of this proposal.
