Great Ideas

Hmm I like that idea - class sponsorship.

What about an even weirder one? Class attendance is not for free, but you can apply for a sponsorship by the Neualtenburger Government. There would be some simple rules for appliance: basically, get to learn about the Neualtenburger Projekt. The idea behind this is simple, attracting people, rewarding the ones who took care to read some stuff about the Projekt, and eventually find more likely-minded individuals that would be interested in joining.

The Event blurb would state something like:



This site will then take people to a simple form and have something like 5 random questions that they will have to answer in order to apply, and give some pointers - this group in the forums, the original proposal at Ulrika's Heim, etc. Imagine:

1. What type of government will Neualtenburg feature?
2. Is there a way to buy plots of land in Anzere from the City Government?
3. Explain how you can use the official city vendors.
4. What is a "citizen" of Neualtenburg and how can you apply for citizenship?
...
etc.

People not really wanting to do their homework will probably just pay the L$ 50 and attend. The ones feeling that the fee is too high will take their time to read a little about Neualtenburg and understand what the project is all about.

It's a very interesting idea, but I have yet to see anyone pay to attend an event

Well, a nominal fee for LSL scripting classes is possible, but that's the only thing I have seen work.

Actually, how about classes which are free for citizens but a small charge for non citizens?

Good intro classes for new users might be a good idea to teach as well.

Oh, blaze, almost all classes are paid for! (the ones done by TLC etc) Only "Mentor Classes" are for free (since the Mentor gets payment from the Lindens anyway). It's also usual to have a few classes for free just to give them a "taste" of it, and later classes are charged.

Actually, on some scripting classes, for the L$ 50, I got lots of scripts, notecards with step-by-step instructions, and a friendly tutor willing to help people out. That's a bargain.

Anyway, people will pay for QUALITY

Paid for by SL users? Or by LL?

I just did a search on all classes in November and the only ones that had cover charges were 2-3 LSL classes in 25 days.

I'd like to be optimistic as well, but my experience is that people don't pay. Generally, they don't have to either, as there are free alternatives. Archae used to run classes which I always felt were of very high quality (he is a professional instructor) but he had no luck as far as I know.

Education in SL has always been a primary focus of mine .. I think I've been to everyone's classes as I find it a very fascinating topic. It deeply saddens me that there isn't a way to profit from it as I'd feel it attract a series of much more sophisticated and compelling classes.

Hmm. Perhaps I should have been following the class business closer. Actually, now that you mention it, I haven't seen any new classes from Archae lately (yes, I used to attend them, and they used to be crowded at first). Even the TLC classes are now mostly Mentor classes or some sort of contests. And with free attendance as well.

Ok, there goes the plan

What do people think about recreation areas in Neualtenburg? A space or spaces where people could just come and play?

There are obviously some in world quite sim heavy games such as as Mahjong and Chess. Are there any traditional Bavarian games we could make?

Also presumably a city like Neualtenburg would have a newspaper or newspapers?

I think the city should figure out a collective means of exporting goods. If Neualtenburg sells it's merchandise in other areas of SL it will bring in revenue, and promote the city.

Examples of this in RL can be found everywhere:

- Knott's Berry Farm
- Hershey Pennsylvania
- Ghiaradelli Chocolate, Rice-A-Roni - San Francisco
- Swiss Army Knife, Swatch - Switzerland
- BMW, Volkswagon - Germany

Of course my list mostly contains food, but the idea is simply that it would be neat if Neualternburg could create signature products that somehow represent and advertise Neualtenburg. The value of the export to the city will increase by how valuable the commodity is to the rest of the SL civilization. Therefore it would behoove Neualtenburg to court the best inventors of SL to come be a part of the community (and get voluntarily taxed on exported sales). Actually, maybe the better idea is to commission work from the best inventors for the city to sell to the outside SL world.
---------------------------

Also, I wholeheatedly agree with any sentiments about having parks. I've traveled Europe twice (went to Germany both times), and while there are claustrophobic areas, there are also lots of attractive open areas in cities.

I think there should be more trees as well. More than just the single Christmas tree. Some nice snow-covered trees would be excellent.

I really like the idea of recreation and gaming in the city! We could even mix these games with contests, such as an chess tournament. If you know of any open source games, pick them up and we can find a place in the city to set them up in.

I'd like to find a way to make revenue from such games, if not directly than by selling fun merchandise for wearing during the game playing. If they do load the sims significantly, we either charge or only allow them during certain times of the day.


I think the idea of a newspaper is smashing as well. The key will be to find someone with an interest in journalism, who likes to write.

~Ulrika~

Yes! We currently have two vendors outside of the city. One is in my shop (Ulrikas Werkstatt) in Seefeld and the other just went up in Kendra's shop (Steam Punk Shop) in Belmondo. You can see the contributions of those vendors to our net sales here.

Right now I'm trying to keep the external vendors to a minimum (I could handle a couple more) as I have to fly around and update them when we change our product line. Version 3.0 of the vendor will have a central server which will eliminate the need to fly around and replace old vendors. At that point we should see an increase in the amount of external vendors.

Yes. We've been discussing this. We are currently working with Ingrid Ingersol to animate and sell her bags both in and out of the city. We don't want to become a mall, so the rule is that we must contribute or work with these artisans in some way (animation, scripting, or textures). One idea is to take a finished product that someone has and add something to it to make it a "special edition" that can only be found in the city.

The city is based on Rothenburg, which is pretty devoid of trees due to its density. However, I agree it would be nice to add some around the castle and other open areas once the city nears completion.

Don't forget that half of our sim is open space. One of our primary goals is to preserve this space and draw people into it (right now almost no one uses this open space). I would love to have things like a cross-sim snowmobile race that starts and ends in the city! Imaging racing through the town and out across the bridge. Fun fun fun! We could call it the Neualtenburg Grand Prix. I'm even planning our own line of snowmobiles.

~Ulrika~

I mentioned that I wanna build an Amsterdam-style coffeehouse.... thoughts?

Arti

The answer is yes! It sounds great. Later on today I'll get a building sign-up sheet going with a city map and you can select a spot.

~Ulrika~

WOOHOO!!! You rock! UGH now I gotta start thinking design..... hrmmmm Lunchtime project! LOL

Arti

Whatever happened to the riddle idea? I was actually thinking of doing something like this someday in SL, maybe we could revive that idea? I have a few ideas for some of the clues

It's one of my favorite ideas! I envisioned this happening after we had most of the structures complete but perhaps we're far enough along that we could start something now. If you'd like to get something started, go for it! I'll jump in when I have some time.

~Ulrika~

I love the riddle and coffee house ideas!!! The riddle one I"ve actually done for an event in the past, and would be happy to help if I can. The coffee house is something I just personally would love to see. I mean, I need somewhere to stumble into at 5am after a night at our pub, right?

Another idea that I thought about for events is protests that are SL related. As much as we love the SL world, there are things we want to see improved or changed. Why not hold some protests (one at a time) on some of the main issues that are affecting SL? Regular political protests in the town square, marches through the town even! Ok, so it may not change anything, but it does help lend to the fact that this is a city where politics, especially SL politics, is welcome.

That is my idea, and I'm making a list of some of the current hot issues. Since we all have different views, there could also be counter protests!! hehe..

Anyway, just something I've been thinking about.

Instead of the running of bulls Neualtenberg could have the running of the sheep or goats. Wouldn't that be a sight!

I don't know what the proper term for what I'm thinking of is. In Lucerne, Switzerland you can take the steepest cogwheel train in the world to the top of Mount Pilatus, and then (once you're done sightseeing) you take this big sky gondola suspended from cables back down the mountain.

I wouldn't want to make the city into Disneyland or anything, but it might be a nice alternate way of spanning the bridge for tourists. I haven't really checked out the valley the bridge spans yet, so I don't know what sights are able to be seen.

Here's what a site has to say about Mount Pilatus (Mount of Dragons):

"Pilatus offers you a unique excursion with the steepest railway of the world (gradient 48%), spectacular cable car and modern panorama gondolas. The highlight of the tour is the magnificent view from 7000 ft above sea level.
Feel the pure nature at the gateway of Lucerne. Discover the several adventurous recreation possibilities at Mount Pilatus. Enjoy Swiss culinary delights in various restaurants at the mountain top with an impressive panoramic view. "

Wow, after so many exciting ideas & projects, I feel almost ashamed to mention a thingie I've built today and left at the Hauptplatz and near the Spital - a simple city map, with teleport buttons for some of the landmarks

It's just a "concept" for now, it needs lots of details:

1) A better map texture (I got the one from Ulrika's Neualtenburg site) - the current one is great for builders, but probably not so good for visitors (ie. they don't really need how big the church or the Senate are, in meters, unless we do some Neualtenburg trivia )

2) Well, a professionally-looking object (like the official vendor) instead of the clumsy one I did.

3) Some nice scripter which does the passing of events correctly. The current version is just a map with half-transparent prims over the landmarks, and you sit on those to teleport. It's easy to use, but there certainly must be a way to link all the prims together I know how to pass some events from the root prim to the child prims, like collisions and such, but "sitting events" is something I never played with. So, if there is any helpful scripter available, I'd like to understand how it's done

4) Ulrika, WONDERFUL work at the bridge! Uhm, no, point 4 was... is there still some "space" left that we could put near the telehub? I remember that this was mentioned somewhere in this group forum. This would certainly be a good place to put another city map/teleporter.

I'm not 100% sure of where exactly these teleporting city maps shoud be placed, but I imagine that we could have them at each landmark or so, and use it to give people notecards on the landmark as well. Currently, as said, I have just put the ones before mentioned, but they let people teleport to 7 different locations or so.

Try them out and tell me what you think (BTW, full mod perms on them, so you may change and delete them if you wish)

Incredible! I was thinking of the same thing! I can't wait to try these out. I'll work up a new map for you no problem. I've been meaning to update it too.

I do know how to link prims together and have them communicate. I just learned it to script Kendra's bubble pipe. I can send you the pieces of code or work on it too, however you want.

Thanks for the good word on the bridge. I think it works very well as a modern piece in the city. I just need to talk over new textures with Kendra.

I haven't asked Haney about the plot of land by the telehub. Now that we have a reason to, I'll do that this weekend.

~Ulrika~

llMessageLinked(LINK_SET,number,string,key);

triggers

link_message(integer sender, integer num, string str, key id)
{
}

I know you did, Ulrika, I shamelessly got the idea from the original proposal for Neualtenburg and from a few of the oldest posts (detailing things like "uniform signs" in Neualtenburg for directing people to places to visit, etc). Well, as said, I had a few hours to spare, and since this was "manageable" to my skills, I certainly enjoyed to do it And I can use the experience in doing those things as well


Ok, I know how to link prims and communicate, as well as "passing" touch events and collision events, but not "sit" events, which are necessary for this to work. I imagine that it must be something like treating the "sit" event as a collision, pass that information to a prim, and this prim does a llSit() on the avatar as an attachment. That's a little too much rocket science for me at the moment so I'll be glad to have some help!

Lance, yes, I saw your post, and that's basically how much I know about linked messages (so far, I used this approach successfully in my own multi-dancer bracelet)


The bridge, as said, is awesome - even with "standard" textures (it looks so good, I thought they were "new" textures just for the bridge). I even like the way the road suddenly finishes Very surreal! I imagine someone will soon devise a bungee jumping script + anim for the bridge hehe...


Ok! Sounds excellent!

Actually, I was impressed by your idea of getting plots in neighbouring sims as well. I guess everybody has seen the ugly building selling pre-fab houses just near Neualtenburg. This is certainly on my list of guys to approach and talk to them to see if they're willing to restyle it to "fit better in" the landscape. Oh, I can imagine los of those guys will be welcoming a "Neualtenburg delegation for landscape improvement" with stoning, tar & feathers, or burning oil But perhaps a few are at least willing to listen or - who knows? - sell their plot... ah well, more things to think about on the mid-term!

Ok, I admit it. I'm a junkie for building stuff (probably because I don't get to do enough of it).

If I'm not mistaken this city is supposed to be a mix of old (traditional) and new styles.

My question is, "What kind of landmarks and skyline does the city want to have?" I've thought of some ideas for landmarks. I won't be offended at all if any of these are rejected. I just want to put them out there for feedback.

- Observation tower. Neualtenburg's own Space Needle or something like that

- A club or pub in the shape of a stein. I wouldn't want to tread on the pub's turf, though.

- An upside-down house. You would enter through the window jutting out from the roof. Not the greatest idea, but it would be unique.

- Neualtenweiser Beer Factory

- A set of houses that appear to be falling over (leaning to one side), or, similarly, a leaning tower of Neualtenburg.

- A radio tower. Pumping out the hits from Rammstein...ugh!

- Neualtenburg Tower. Like, but unlike the Eiffel Tower. I'm going a little overboard with the towers, I know. Just brainstorming.

- Neualtenburg Library. Could be handy.

- Neualtenburg Inn.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now.

Some great ideas Rock!!

I also wanted to let people know that I am working on some premade homes that I will probably be putting for sale to the town (or free for the town for sale to the public - will be talking with Kendra about it) that will match our theme but give some variety to the homes already in place (though personally I love the current homes even if they are cookie cutter - excellent job Ulrika!). These will be low prim and fit current building code requirements.

I am creating a measuring stick (so to speak) that I am basing off the current homes. Reason being so that the new builds will fit neatly into places where a current house already sits. If anyone wants a copy of the measuring stick when I have it made, just let me know!

Die Falterturm von Kitzingen
Lore has it that the tower leans due to a drought. The masons ran out of water for their mortar and used the local wein von rhein (wine, quite tasty, I was stationed there) to continue mixing the mortar and the mud got drunk.

Anyone interested in organizing a program for the museum, please contact me. I've put a few bits of my work up on the walls, and BladeDancer has got one of his. But we need to organize a process by which selections are made and exhibits are organized.

I'm happy to help advance a cultural component for Neualtenburg. Let me know if you'd like to help.

Sudane