Dreaming up locations

[SekoETC]

We all know New Lands Department is long gone and their job officially over, but still there are many places without resources. Wouldn't it be nice if you could design your own corner of the world, to play god for a while? I'm not saying you'd get your will through by writing here, oh no, but still, no one can stop you from day-dreaming.

First thing I'd like to say is that nature wasn't made for humans. God didn't place all resources within short distance of one another just to make life easy for people, oh no. So if someone says "who needs a location with just grass, that's just a waste"... they don't know what they're talking about. When you dream a location, you don't think if it's a good place to spawn in, since most of our world consists of places where you couldn't survive on your own. But there is beauty in savage places. You shouldn't always think about how the land can be used for your benefit. It's not there for you. It's there for itself, and you're just a guest.

Here comes my dream island, turning into a story. Maybe we'll call it "The Flat Wheat Island" - You'll soon catch why.

Imagine this: fields of wheat, majestetic maples with their blood-red leaves whispering in the wind, beehives and daisies. Can you imagine the smell in the air? "Useless", said the young Cantrian, "I have no house nor oven, what do I eat here?"

Ok, maybe the next location would be nicer. Again wheat, and pumpkins, potatoes, corn, sugar, clay. Whee. Yeah, this island would have lots of clay. Since many places tend to have either stone or sand or both. But this one would have a land based mostly on clay.

"But how can I get my stone hammer??" cried the little Cantrian.
"Alright then, I'll give you a bit of stone," said the god, "but for that, you'll need to travel to the other end of the island." The land is higher there, but still not mountains, just hills. (This island is rather flat.)

On the way he sees... buffalos, turkeys, hawks, dogs, some raccoons and cows and horses. These are the main beasts on the arable lands. There's also cotton growing, and more wheat as you can guess, lots of wheat. (And he's so pissed that there's no stone or tools for an oven.) And there could be sorghum and barley too. In fact, when he travels on, there's less and less wheat and more and more sorghum. The land is getting more dry, sand starts appearing, gradually covering the clay and in one location he noticed the land has turned into a desert instead of a grassland it used to be. There are scorpions and snakes about, a few lost buffalos wandering around, and the boy is feeling rather lost as well. But he keeps on going, following the voice of his god. And finally, the desert turns into hills, first covered in sand, then clay, and finally the stone appears. And there's that bloody sorghum all about.

The boy's done eating his packed pumpkins and is getting rather hungry. Luckily, he finds a place among the hills that has gathered a bit of moisture, there's grass... and potatoes. Yummy potatoes they are, hooray! And... onions, yeah, there's a bit of onions to fix those buffalo bumps. After restocking the boy goes to gather the stone he hunted for so long - only to realize he has no wood for the shaft.

"Would you come watch the sea with me?" says the god.
"But I don't have time to watch the sea, I'm over thirty already and I only have a bone knife!" says the youngster with a frown.
"But.. I made such a nice beach... and you're not even looking..." the god sniffs and pouts, and sends a hawk to take a bite at the man's ear.
"Well, alright then!" says the man, a bit too loud, springing to his feet, "but you better lead me to a forest then, before I get old."
"I promise," says the god in a solemn but soft voice, taking the young man by the hand. "I lead you to the stone, too, didn't I?" And the youngster can do nothing but nod.

They arrive at the seaside. It smells funny in there, and on the first glance, the man wonders what's so nice there, there's nothing but sand stained with seaweed. He turns to ask the god, but she's gone again, gone her own way. The man heaves a sigh and stands there a while, staring at the sea, idly collecting some seaweed though he doesn't know what to do with it.

To be continued (since I'm getting rather sleepy)

[nateflory]

ok, you have a gift with words. That was the BEST method I could have imagined to describe the process of creating lands. I could see the images, I could feel the frustration of sorghum-ad-nausium, and could smell the salt spray from the beach. WOW!

This is a quote from my own game regarding an area...similar in concept, but not nearly as beautiful: written yesterday... great minds think [almost] alike?
The sandy plains of Ksulai have slowly spread out from the SkyFire Mountain at its center. What was once a lush grassy plain has now become deserts and barren landscapes. However, small pockets of water and grass still exist, and a few small towns allows for trade among the locals.

[Nalaris]

Anywhere that speaks latin.

[N-Aldwitch]

You know what, I love the idea. It's brilliant.
Can you imagine a group coming to attack?
I mean, it'd be like the Australian Aboriginals versus the White Europeans all over again. (for those who know not much about Australian culture, when the Europeans came over, some Europeans {exactly 2 in specific} would murder 100+ aboriginals in a short period of time, thanks to guns).
There'd be this 'heaven', this island for those worthy of spawning on it. I really like the idea. Perhaps there can only be food there? And perhaps it can be close to a continent, with a select few 'star RPers' set down to 'guard' the island from it being built on as a massive settlement? There could be ships that took people off the island to a better place, as there'd only be food (there I disagree with you Seko, I would prefer there to be no raw resource, perhaps besides one location with clay that is food-less).

It'd be a safe haven, people could go there (religious people) to have 'time-out' from the real world, for holidays. They could make it into a resort!

Please, New Lands Department, one more island! Just one! XD

[SekoETC]

Ummmmm... well, if your dream island would be filled with just food then I can't blame you, but most players would be likely to find that rather boring. Staying alive wouldn't really be much of a challenge when there's food all around, but you could only have bone tools. Actually, that sounds pretty much like K-island! Even though there's lots of non-edible resources as well, thanks to the strict governments my character there never touched iron in her life. I think the most advanced thing she ever had was a wooden shield.

[AoM]

Funny, my K-islanders never had much trouble getting iron... And I'm fairly certain that K-island has had a lot of interesting conflict, all involving heavily armed people. So nyeh.

Maybe if you'd joined one of the strict governments, you'd have been equipped. Loners aren't going to get far...

[N-Aldwitch]

We, as players and characters, are very lucky in fact that the Hematite region hasn't been monopolized yet (K-Isle/Island I'm talking about). If someone, or a group with enough weaponary siezed the area, and killed off any armed people and took their weapons, we'd be very much doomed.

[Oasis]

Or back where we were just a few short Cantr years ago.