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The unveiling of Arcél

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:52 pm
by zompist
I've been working on the historical atlas of Arcél, and I have just three maps to go. Yay. (I started it about five years ago.)

I'm curious how best to release this material. So if you're interested, please answer the poll above.

I also worry a bit about the history of unknown lands, full of difficult unfamiliar names, being too dry. I've tried to humanize the commentary with particular personalities, but I wonder if anyone has good ideas on what makes this sort of thing more interesting. Pictures? Cultural descriptions? Stories and anecdotes? Quotes from the natives?

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:51 pm
by dunomapuka
Cultural descriptions are key, especially ones that give us a real material understanding of what the people and their day-to-day existence are like. Occasional images if you want -- I'd be most interested in seeing Uytai.

Re: The unveiling of Arcél

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:46 pm
by Yiuel Raumbesrairc
zompist wrote:I've been working on the historical atlas of Arcél, and I have just three maps to go. Yay. (I started it about five years ago.)
Yay!
I'm curious how best to release this material. So if you're interested, please answer the poll above.
I will reveal my vote, I would like to have it done gradually, as a new world that we would be discovering. Somehow, you must take your time to learn about dozens of countries at a time. And doing things this way will give us some new stuff for the next few months :)
I also worry a bit about the history of unknown lands, full of difficult unfamiliar names, being too dry. I've tried to humanize the commentary with particular personalities, but I wonder if anyone has good ideas on what makes this sort of thing more interesting. Pictures? Cultural descriptions? Stories and anecdotes? Quotes from the natives?
Well, in my experience when I discovered Almea, all of these were interesting. Images gives us a more visual feeling to the world. Stories and anecdotes are also another way. Quotes from the natives gives us a more direct link with the countries being discussed.

But I agree with boy#12 that cultural descriptions help a lot more than anything else. You get to feel the the people's mindset.

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:13 am
by vec
Yes, I like gradual, because then the reading amount is not to overwhelming and you don't have to wait as long. Now that you've mentioned it, I just want to see it as soon as possible. I can't wait :D

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:01 am
by Drydic
Woo

I'd go for the map or two per week, but backed up with a few in-depth pages/articles. Also I'd take the lessons of the Ereláe historical atlas (which I'm sure you have), (amongst other things) namely with the new Almeopedia, many more items can be linked, and slowly expanded. I'm nearly certain you have at least a semicomplete grammar of <insert>, and that might be an extra treat to release. Or perhaps a taste of one, similar to Effect/Countereffect and The Rogues, but with more meaty linguistic info.

Of course you can do what you will. It's your baby. Have fun changing the diapers. :)

EDIT: to remove mass article stacking.

EDIT#2: How'd I miss the idea of native quotes? That seems to be quite a good idea. Possibly passages from historical treatsies and/or popular sources/myths/

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:08 pm
by Corumayas
I'd say just present things as you finish them. Either a little at a time or in less frequent but larger chunks is good as far as I'm concerned; with a historical atlas I like to flip back and forth a little, so it might be nice to get more than one page at a time. But you certainly don't need to wait and publish everything all at once.

For your second question, all of the above help. (Of course, "the history of unknown lands, full of difficult unfamiliar names" is largely what drew me to Almea in the first place, so I probably won't find it too dry at all!) I've always been especially fascinated by the Belief Systems series, so it'd be great to see more of that kind of thing.

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:03 pm
by Pthagnar
all at once, because i am not a child who is unable to delay gratification

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:10 pm
by 캉탁
Whatever floats thine boat.

I want it all...if it takes a week or 6 months, I just want it all.

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:35 pm
by Neek
I would prefer not to be overwhelmed with information all at once; a little at a time would be great.

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:09 pm
by Atom
I want it all now! All of it! Mwuhahahah! :wink:

:mrgreen: Very excited, and please do whatever works best for you.

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:40 pm
by eodrakken
I voted for a gradual reveal because I think those are fun, but either way I'm just excited to see it. Your constuff is always a pleasure.

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:55 am
by zompist
Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like gradual is the way to go. That also has the advantage that the later, more complicated maps get extra thought along the way.

The maps and commentary are done now, but I need to go over it again and add some more stuff. I think I have a neat idea for adding something of interest to each section.

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:32 pm
by Drydic
Catgirls.

That is all.

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:03 pm
by zompist
Damn, April 1st is gone. It would have been awesome to declare that Almea was now populated by furries.

As a foretaste of things to come, I update the terrain map of Arcél:

http://www.almeopedia.com/index.php/Arc%C3%A9l

You may commence memorizing the river names. (It's hard to write a history without having a way to refer to regions, and in general each river has its own distinct population.)

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:40 pm
by vec
Will you be doing most of the stuff through Almeopedia? I find it slightly difficult to keep track through Almeopedia because I never know when things are updated...

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:41 pm
by Yiuel Raumbesrairc
vecfaranti wrote:Will you be doing most of the stuff through Almeopedia? I find it slightly difficult to keep track through Almeopedia because I never know when things are updated...
Hmhmh :

http://www.almeopedia.com/index.php/Spe ... entchanges

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:56 pm
by vec
I know, but it's like on Virtual Verduria where you get this big announcement "THIS IS DONE NOW, COME LOOK!". That you have to check often and you can't subscribe through RSS, nor would I want to. I don't wanna see every minor change. I feel like there needs to be some kind of Information system where you "advertise" the new big articles. I also feel like there could be a some sort of a portal site for each broad topic like on Wikipedia. But maybe that would be too hard to maintain. I don't know, I'm just saying. Since this is a thread about opinions on presentation and all.

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:44 pm
by kodé
vecfaranti wrote:I feel like there needs to be some kind of Information system where you "advertise" the new big articles.
The Almea Forum does a pretty good job of this: the three years I've been here, all the big additions to Virtual Verduria/the Almeopedia have had a corresponding thread (or two) in this forum.

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:06 pm
by dhok
Is it going to include any of Curym?

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:19 pm
by zompist
Vecfaranti, once I start releasing maps I'll do it on a schedule. There will probably also be a bunch of random Almeopedia articles.

I think I'll use Almeopedia for the maps and articles, to enable links. The atlas was done in Flash, but it's a hassle to release partial atlases. So I'll release the Flash version when it's all done.

dhokarena, the base map includes a sliver of Kereminth, but nothing of note happens there. Curym never made it to the state level (except for the ktuvok empires, and even they are pretty primitive).

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:53 pm
by the duke of nuke
Awesome.
I can't wait to see this...

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 12:13 pm
by dhok
What about Neinuoi? It has a large area with irrigation agriculture, so does that mean it made it to the state level?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 12:29 pm
by sangi39
dhokarena56 wrote:What about Neinuoi? It has a large area with irrigation agriculture, so does that mean it made it to the state level?
That or the agriculture only manages to support th population without enough surplus to feed a non-productive stratum of society but which has a strong unified cultural belief in which the people believe they are one and as such this is reflected in the name of the area, meaning that it never reached "state" level in the conventional sense but instead formed a large unified society with very little social hierarchy. I like playing around with possible societal and cultural scenarios :)

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 2:02 pm
by dhok
There's not enough info about it to make even a guess. I hope Zomp will include it.
[EDIT]
And what might we consider a tentative release date?