Ok, it seems we have some good interest. First off, no magic. Second, throw out an era we can start. Should we start building solid at one area, or choose one point, and work on some history to that point, and then begin to expand. One thing though, is that it is in a pre-contact era, because we will influence each other's work.
Sometime after writing was developed would probably be best, by that time there would be some civilizations already started, and if it is early enough, it isn't likely they have contacted anyone else yet other than whoever happens to be right next to them.
It's also possible that if there are areas sufficiently isolated and small, that they could basically be ignored for awhile until contact actually is made with them. This could help if there aren't that many people, though it could be problematic as we'd have to come up with basically their entire history at the time that we found them... so maybe it would be better if someone was developing them from the start, or leave these areas open for new people to join in later on.
Zain pazitovcor, sio? Sio, tovcor.
You can't read that, right? Yes, it says that.
Shinali Sishi wrote:"Have I spoken unclearly? I meant electric catfish not electric onions."
Maybe we could start with a planet and have people pick an area. We could figure weather and climate and such, and who's next to who, and all those other wonderful variables.
So...is anyone particularly good at con-planet creating?
I might be able to compile sort of a digital magazine for such a project, although technically I have only negative time to commit to such a thing. Still, motivation wouldn't hurt at this point.. (hint hint ). <Ducks the next life-consuming thing the universe is about to throw toward him..>
It's not to late to join, is it? I don't have any projects (aside from my germlang and possible romlang and possible spinoff on greek (greclang?)), so this would be a good project to get me really into the spirit of conlanging (which I've been out of for a while)
valiums wrote:So...is anyone particularly good at con-planet creating?
Depends. I'm assuming we're going with a standard class-M planet, humanoid life forms, etc. Basically Earth with different cultures.
Maybe we could have one map, and then everyone fight for spots they like.
Like the tutorial in the thread on Flags said, have several people make thier own design, and then have a committee (us) choose the best one. (And then fights over parts of it!)
Also, will we have people on every possible space? I think it'd be interesting for future history if we left a continent or somesuch completely deserted.
(More fighting )
valiums wrote:
Also, will we have people on every possible space? I think it'd be interesting for future history if we left a continent or somesuch completely deserted.
(More fighting )
This I like. It could produce interesting results.
And my vote goes to the whole picking-a-spot-on-the map-thing as well.
We could also do the committee idea on the planet as well, design several different planets (the amount being dependent on who wants to make one (or more) and has time to make them) and then pick one out of the suggestions. And then another round to figure out what part of the planet everyone is on.
I like the idea of leaving an area empty, could end up with an interesting period of colonization once it's actually found.
Zain pazitovcor, sio? Sio, tovcor.
You can't read that, right? Yes, it says that.
Shinali Sishi wrote:"Have I spoken unclearly? I meant electric catfish not electric onions."
Yes, the committee thing sounds good. But we shouldn't start drawing borders yet. Just basically select a point where our initial "tribe" started. I really like the open continent idea, great for possible imperialism, and I think people should be able to join wherever they want, even in taking a small part of someone else's civ, if they approve. Maybe at one point we each can write up a person that affects another's civ.
Here's how I see this:
Stage one: Initial work
We choose one place, and begin to develop a culture and create a pattern of justification and development for stage two, instead of being entirely random.
Stage Two: Brunt work
We choose a pre-contact point, and develop an in-depth civilization, with many, many nuances. We will probably start a wiki where we can collaborate easier.
Stage Three: Contact
We begin to interact with each other, destroying, sharing, and affecting for better or worse. We also continue to develop, and as things progress, we may slowly add a certain amount of "impact people", or the people you would read about in history books.
Those stages seems like they could be a good base to start of from.
But first of all, I think we'll need a map. Is there anybody who wants to tackle that one, or is able to at the moment?
Here's a basic grayscale map for a possible planet, I could also calculate the climates based off of it as well. Though I don't really know how to make a good quality map that's pretty to look at though, so someone else would probably have to do that... and add details that would be seen when zooming in, this is just a general overview of the continents and other landmasses.
Attachments
planet.png (28.06 KiB) Viewed 5064 times
Zain pazitovcor, sio? Sio, tovcor.
You can't read that, right? Yes, it says that.
Shinali Sishi wrote:"Have I spoken unclearly? I meant electric catfish not electric onions."
That map is awesome. I nominate you to be the Official Greyscale Gradient Cartographer. Those island up top are a bit... unnatural. I think we start by drawing very basic continent shapes. Actually, wouldn't it be fun to start with a rough Pangaea, and derive a current world map from that? We could draw tectonic plates, and get the basic shape for continents from that, and fill in more details later.