Radical Idea

THIS IDEA WAS EDITED GO TO BOTTOM OF THREAD

Before you read: Some of these ideas may be radical. This article is not intentionally critizing any citizen of Neualtenburg. Please remember that these are just ideas, that may improve Neualtenburg in the future.

Thanks,

Eugene
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Neualtenburg Renovation and Improvement Plan:

A while ago, i visitited two profitable themed sims. (Sims of Paris, and Rue D'Alliez) I recognized that both of the sims had many shops and some rentable apartments, while maintaining their themes. Both have them have even able to buy extra sims. You're probally asking, why am i telling you this. I have a reason .

I suggest:

Remodel the entire Neualtenburg sim, to make it more business and people friendly. More varieties of buildings, every building is unique. The first and second floors of a building will be commerical and the second or third floors of a building will be residential. The second floor can be used as commerical or residential purposes, depending on the demand.

I assure you that this will make Neualtenburg more profitable, maybe even allowing us to buy more sims .

Everything will be created by one hired artisan.

Change the city's layout.

My Ideas:

City will be located on a round hilltop. Areas around the hill will have trees only. The marketplatz will be located in the center of the city with all main streets leading there. A fountain will be placed in the middle of the platz. The platz will be in a square or circle shape. Around the platz there will be Neualtenburg government related buildings. (Rathaus, information center, store, etc.) Buildings will be right next to each other, there will not be much visible terrain inside the city walls, to have a more citylike look.

I truly belive by doing this, Neualtenburg can be made into a very profitable sim, with the benefits of government.

To show all the hard work done by the Neualtenburg cititzens, i would propose a Neualtenburg Historical Museum, showing all of Neualtenburg's achievements, and past builds.

Comments are appreciated.
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But this would lose the benefits of having "themed" spots and "open" spots as we do now; if your proposal was accepted I would be gone.

Also, those "profitable" themed sims are primarily profitable because, well, they're just that - businesses and run as such. Neualtenburg is not, to my mind, a business; it is a city government. A government must meet expenses but is rarely expected to turn a profit in the same sense as a business in a capitalist society.

For me, part of the charm and draw of Neualtenburg is the fact that while we have a theme, it is not all-encompassing, nor are we nothing but "charming" pre-built structures; we possess a measure of the same freedom that one has on the main grid but WITH a government that's responsible to the residents (as opposed to the petty dictatorships of most private islands, or the anarchy with absolute monarchy on some points on the main grid).

I don't want to live in McDisneyNeualtenburg, and even if that's not your intention, neither Paris nor Rue d'Alliez's setups appeal to me.

More specifically, "one hired artisan" can bite me, to put it bluntly. I'm keeping my stuff.

I'd be gone so fast you'ld spin around like a top from the sudden decrease in air pressure whare I was standing. Sorry, Eugene --what you describe would be more like Neualtenmall instead of the organic city we have.

Part of Neualtenburg's charm is it's spurts of change and growth from inspired group creativity. I wouldn't like this even if *I* was the hired artisan.

Having said that --I'll probably wind up using your suggestions in "Isenland" --in that it will be set up to be a corporate oligarchy.

As one who is in the process of buying land in Neualtenburg, your proposal scares me. I chose to buy there because I like it the way it is, and I put a lot of thought into which lots I wanted. I realize that some change over time is inevitable, but your ideas sound too radical to me.

Bugger that for a game of soldiers.

I guess I have to go on the record as also thinking this is too radical to accept, but I think perhaps we shouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

I think what Eugene is pointing out here is that we are not really thinking (or haven't been thinking) about financial or city panning aspects of neualtenburg as well as we might have been.

The city *is* laid out poorly in terms of where the stores might be best located and where the apartments are located to some degree. Shopping districts and business areas are emerging in a sort of organic way (that I like actually), but it's taking time and we are not always helping it along.

Perhaps we should look at some serious zoning or city development planning.

Yes, that was my main point of this thread. Even though my idea may be radical, i still think we can use some of its ideas.

Here is the *edited* version of my idea

- Business District in Neualtenburg. (One Street?) (Talenstrasse?)
- Business Oriented Fachwerks (in business district of Neualtenburg only.
- or Business Orietened Fachwerks with second or third floor being residential.

Now, that's a little more sensible. Looking at the land map on the website, I was under the impression such was already the case when I first joined up; actually making a "commercial zone" with residential apartments upstairs would be great. If all the commercial buildings fill up, we can look into expanding the commercial district, but just keeping it to one street at first sounds like a good trial.

I am not in favor of redesigning or rezoning the city in any way that serves to facilitate business above all else. Neualtenburg does not exist to move merchandise and should not be disassembled just to move merchandise. It is essential that the city continue to evolve organically just like a real city would. That means leaving the church, restaurant, streets, and walls where they are and building within the existing inner-city layout.

Further, there's no need to zone streets for commerce, as citizens can simply purchase a lot and turn the dwelling into a store (and keep the upstairs for residential if desired). In short, unzoned land on an open market will tend to zone itself, with those looking to sell moving towards the center.

Finally, there will be an opportunity to plan and zone a new sim shortly. According to the land page on our website, we just passed the break-even threshold.

~Ulrika~

Indeed we have

So, new sim... this time we'll have a huge shopping mall with a club & casino in the middle?

Just joking, of course

I like Neualtenburg as it is. Any shopping area should be outside the inner walls.

I would even prefer to keep the valley clean ... maybe a gypsy tent or a blacksmith, something thats fits into the theme ... a casino does not.

A second sim could be an option to design a good part of it as the Neualteburg marketplace with commerce.

By the way: please do not remove the Biergarten, this is something typical, especially for Bavaria.

Another question: what is all about this Hoffmann Design building in the valley, that cannot even be entered?

Well, I believe that's a house. And they like having privacy.

Hello chaps

I am new to the City, just having arrived a few days ago. Missed the meeting yesterday unfortunately because I was busy in RL but I am keen to get involved with the Projekt.

I just wanted to add my views on this subject from the perspective of a newbie. One of the main things which attracted me to Neultenburg was the very fact that it wasn't simply about making money. It seemed to be a kind of virtual social experiment. One of the least pleasant things about SL for me in my short time here has been the overwheling emphasis on commercialism.

Of course this is an organic city and things will change, which is good. But I think it should be an evolutuion and I don't think profit should be a motive.

I do think it is good though that people feel free to raise such radical suggestions.

Feidhlim

I agree with every word of this.

Also, thanks for sticking your neck out on the line to make a radical suggestion, Eugene. It's your creativity which makes you such a valuable member of the SDF and the RA.

~Ulrika~

I can hardly wait for the gigantic forum-battle/screaming contest etc. required for us to agree on that one. I havent heard a single idea for a new sim that isn't the exact opposite of the idea I heard from the last person.

Sometimes I think we should ditch our government structure altogether in favour of a medieval "Battle Royale." The last one standing at the end of the fight gets to decide what we do with a new sim. It might take less time than the inevitable debate.

I agree.

I was thinking that it would be worth our time to ask the public (potential citizens) what they would like, decide upon a logical way to integrate it with our current architecture, and then hire a single team from the Guild to implement the design. Everyone else would have to watch.

I can say now, however, that I would like the sim to add on to the East of our current sim, such that the castle and city center can be completed, albeit in a different and evolving style.

~Ulrika~

I dunno, we were pretty civil about it, last thread that was up. And I'm willing to go with nearly any idea that's sufficently cool; I just spin 'em off.

I agree with your thoughts of the valley and the biergarten. Frankly, i would like the valley area just to be woodland with some bavarian buildings, such as a blacksmith, brewery, etc.

I would like to leave the exterior of the biergarten as it is. The biergarten is one of Neualtenburg's oldest buildings. Should Neualtenburg start a Landmark Association?

Heres a link to a post with some ideas for our next sim .
/103/0c/54982/1.html


- Eugene

Wow, I can't believe it - we're actually beginning to seriously discuss our second sim! Yay!

To be very honest, despite all my optimism, I must confess that I did never thought we came to this point so fast! After all, I still remember the painfull weeks in the January-March period where we didn't have the slightest idea if we would survive on our own private sim.

At this time, I think it's really appropriate to thank you all who made this possible thus far — thank you, thank you, thank you!

/me catches her breath...

Whew. Well, one thing is for certain, I hope that at the very least the "new sim" (if we ever come with it) deals with the "completion issue" that Ulrika suggested. I definitely don't want to have a cyberpunk skyscraper looming over the Schloss just next door (and I must admit I love cyberpunk aesthetics ).

Although it's very likely premature, I fully support Ulrika's idea having a team of Guild members proposing the new layout, making sure it fits as well as possible on the "borders" of the current island. And then have them build it (but see below!)

An alternative would be having a contest...

In any case, I'd suggest we postpone that discussion until after Christmas (an eternity, in "SL time". After the EXPO, we have the Oktoberfest, and the Christmas events, all flowing together almost without interruption. This will give us a few extra months to see if we can manage to be over the break-even line, start paying the Guild earnestly for their work (instead of just handing out promissory notes), and eventually only then see if we're ready for the "next step" in Neualtenburg's history.

However, there is one thing I should ask: will the City of Neualtenburg, as we know it now, have jurisdiction over the new sim - or will we start from scratch with a new type of Government, new rules, a new system, and just a "gentleman's agreement" between both sims as to how the borders should meet? Now that will be one of the most interesting debates ever!

Just to raise some more polemic thoughts, I'm all for keeping the same Government, but have a different covenant on the new sim. Of course, as a member of the RA, I'm totally biased Under that suggestion, the new sim would simply be "Neualtenburg East". It wouldn't be an "independent" sim. But this would also mean that we wouldn't be able to have a different government form.

I've always envisioned multiple sims under the same government.

There are some practical reasons for this, such as:

1. We'd have a larger pool of people from which to draw RA, Guild, and SC members.
   
2. We would share infrastructure (website, forum, constitution, laws, members, etc.).
   
3. Those of us who owned land in both (or more) sims wouldn't have to keep track of multiple governments and meetings.
   
4. The surplus land-use fees in the established sims will support the shortfalls in the new sims.
   
5. The sim would avoid all our growing pains and contribute to the stability of our system.

I like it. Since covenants go with the land, that's not a problem.

~Ulrika~

What makes this very interesting as well, That January '06 will see the establishment of "Isenland" in Takalo. A new City on the main Grid that will operate as a single branch government using Die Gilde as a model. An Artist's Corporate Oligarchy if you will. While not officially a part of Neualtenburg, we will be opening what we hope are profitable trade negotions and potential import export of product.

This was the post Kendra accidently deleted



I agree with your thoughts of the valley and the biergarten. Frankly, i would like the valley area just to be woodland with some bavarian buildings, such as a blacksmith, brewery, etc.

I would like to leave the exterior of the biergarten as it is. The biergarten is one of Neualtenburg's oldest buildings. Should Neualtenburg start a Landmark Association?

Heres a link to a post with some ideas for our next sim .
/103/0c/54982/1.html


- Eugene

I'd consider moving my blacksmith outside into the valley, if it was given a similar landmark status to the biergarten.

As far as a Landmark Association goes? We have one. It's called Die Gilde.

Absolutely agree. Couldn't have said it better.

Yay!! This is all very exciting!!

And I agree with Ulrika here. While I *very* much want to see other types of themed sims and governments start up and attach to Neualtenburg, I also *really really* would like to see at least a sim or two more devoted to our current theme and government. And mainly for all the reasons that Ulrika states above.

We have had a *lot* of new interest in Neualtenburg, and land is already starting to get scarce. So more land with our current theme and government (which is already working beautifully) would be a welcome addition I think!

One thought of my own that I would add: Would there be any thought given to having the new sim be flushed up against our current city? It would allow us to expand the city a bit, but also still have "valley" space outside city walls in both sims. Any thoughts on that?