This is actually an indoor Courtyard in a Fredericton, New Brunswick Ramada Inn. I thought it ‘felt like’ a scene from New Orleans. ~~~ TaleRocker
— This is the old ‘client’s look. This is one or two generations back. What you’re looking at is a piece of an area being ‘created’, stretched, resized, and soon it will be shaped, texturized, maybe painted, and moved into place. That bit of landscape that is hovering in dark space there might end up being an off-shore mountain that you can’t get to from here- Or it might be flipped upside down and manipulted to become the ceiling, the inside of a cave – what you’d see if you look up inside the cave. If anybody playing your game can see the coutside of the cave, as in, a mountain or hill- you have to ‘create’ another piece of landscape, size it, texturize it, shape it and very carefully move it so it is right-side-up on top of the upside down cave interior – And you better fly all around your mountain or hill and go inside your cave and make sure everything did fit together right. These bits are only visible from one side. Your character may be able to walk through a wall it can’t see until it turns around and then it wouldn’t be able to get back. As a developer you can ‘turn off collisions’ and walk through walls and fall into a black void, or a white void, or a grey void, or a pink void- or all kinds of different coloured nothingness, that never looks like anywhere you’d want to stay. And I’ve actually lost a couple builder characters that way. You can now restart them in a safe zone and move them back to the area you fell through – making sure collisions are back ‘on’, or you’re in ‘flying’ mode so you can move up and down and around and in and out and then rise above a spot you’d like your builder character to fly down to and land. But sometimes weird things happen, like part of the character might be invisible, or gone. This can be traumatic. ~~~ TaleRocker
After the 2010 event commemorating The Prince Of Wale’s visit to Arnprior in 1860 was such a smashing success, and seeing as how many of the ‘Enactors’ still had their Period Dresses handy, the committee in charge of celebrating Arnprior’s 150th Birthday thought they coud add to their festivities by encouraging Enactors to walk around during the 150th Celebration ‘In Costume’ again. Here we have several ‘Respectable’ women from ‘way back when’ ordering Ice Cream at a Summer Ice Cream Stand in the summer of 2012. ~~~ TaleRocker
—“Advanced Cave Building” I was scrolling through old screen shots and this one stood out. It really looks spectacular when viewed full size. & ‘building a cave’ is no simple task. You have to flip one section upside-down to work on it and add the textures and so on, and later spend hours making sure the sections line up right and make danged sure that no part of one section protrudes through another. This is a huge cave in the “Faery Kingdoms” section of the Game. ~~~ TaleRocker
Behind the scenes, and behind the cameras at a charity telethon. Local politicians and celebrities ready to give their speeches to kick this one off, while the bagpipes and drums march in. This is another shot from 2010. ~~~ TaleRocker
Fox-Person Looking right at us. It wasn’t easy to get the look right to have the people who were supposedly evolved from Foxes look different enough from those who’d supposedly evolved from Cats. But we think we did it. What do you think? We’ll work on the tails some time in the near future. ~~~ TaleRocker
Remembrance Day in Arnprior, Ontario, 2012 – It was part of my job, working as a local video ‘Production Assistant’ for a cable television provider in Arnprior to cover important events, like the yearly ceremonies at the cenotaph ( a monument with the names of local residents who died in distant wars chiseled in stone ) on Remembrance Day – November 11th. I believe DreamCat – Cathi Harris – took this photo while I was shooting video. ~~~ TaleRocker
We’ve been calling these guys ‘Delvahrians’ – We didn’t want to call them ‘Dwarves’- They’re taller, larger and more robust than the ‘Ottarians’ [ Ottarians believe their race evolved from Otters- Delvahrians believe they were the first ‘intelligent’ life created by whichever ‘God’ they personally believe in and weren’t quite sure Who or What created Elves – and all those other races who began intruding into their lands after they’d been there, believing they were the only intelligent life – for thousands of years- living mostly underground in caves and tunnels they made beautiful through their own hard work. ] They can see in the dark – they are very hard workers, have no ‘gift’ for magic, other than Religious Magic – And they have definite ideas about the finer points of the various Religious Sects’ dogma. It is not unusual for Delvahrians to break into fist fights over interpretations of things like the finer points of ‘Non-Violent Theory’ and things like that. They are semi-resistant to alcoholic beverages and comsume vast quantities at celebrations. They’ve only recently realized that many of their offspring, who had been expected to work in the mines as soon as they could walk, had died of loneliness, and have been secretly seeking advice on how to nurture their young from Ottarians, – and they have a ‘soft spot’ for Ottarians, whom they credit for saving their civilization in a crucial battle against incredibly overwhelming numbers of the Ghardra (goblins) and they have developed the belief that Ottarians can actually die of exhaustion if anybody ever forces them to do a normal day’s amount of work. — The Ottarians go along with that belief and practice having ‘near death experiences’ when they want to knock off early and go home and play with their kids. ~~~ TaleRocker
This is the last train on the tracks through Arnprior, Ontario, Canada. One thing I noticed since I’ve been here – Local, Regional, Provincial and Federal ‘Governments’ have a nasty habit of ‘going through the motions’- Deciding major decisions behind closed doors and then pretending to care what the citizens / taxpayers think of their decisions. They hold town meetings, they ask for ‘input’ and dismiss outright any opinion or point of view but their own. The Railroad ‘wanted to sell its tracks and routes to somebody who might continue to service this vital corridor’ between Ottawa and Petawawa – where there is a major armed services base. Several groups wanted to buy the tracks – etc. and keep the railroad alive. But the corporate ‘ice holes’ had made up their mind, nobody could pay their price. And before anybody could stop them, they rolled through, tore up the tracks and loaded them on cars behind this locomotive and chugged away with them. I blame the Conservative/Elitist mind-set. Divide and conquer – isolate dissenters. tear apart the infrastructure that could unite people. Stick it the them before they know what hit them. Corporate Fascism is alive and well in Canada. ~~~ TaleRocker ( Photo by Cathi Harris / DreamCat )
“Absentia” – From the beginning, I wanted ‘my world’ to be different from almost every other game world I ever herd of- I knew ‘gamers’ who wanted to develop characters and role play with what I’d call ‘elegance’ and finesse. And I knew rabid gamers who wouldn’t be happy unless they could kill everything in sight. I couldn’t imagine why both these groups, and anybody else, whose tastes I probably couldn’t imagine before I ‘met’ them- shouldn’t be happy with the same ‘game’ One city could be a slash and hackers’ paradise. Another city could be under ‘Divine Protection’ and nobody could attack anybody else within its boundaries. I envisioned a city for people I knew who’d played ‘Sims Online’ where designers and developers could hang out, ‘own shops’ where they could upload, display and sell their wares and innovations within the game. I thought it would fun to call their city ‘Oblivia’ and surround it with a deep dense fog, and explain that the residents have no idea there’s anything beyond their city’s borders. Somebody told me there was a place called ‘Oblivia’ in the Pokemon universe. While I was grumbling that somebody stole my idea, the wild and crazy love of my life – And my ‘drafted’ artist who was learning to use Maya 3D – grinned, “Call the city ‘Absentia’ – I like the idea that I could tell people that I’d be in Absentia -” And this Elf warrior has just stumbled upon the hidden pass that leads to Absentia. ~~~ TaleRocker
This is a view that only someone building a game world will ever see. We set the clock in motion and were linking areas together, jumped from work to ‘play’ mode to see how we were doing and got this view. Of a section of the ‘Faer Kingdoms’. I just spent way too much time looking for the full size original screen shots of this view and the one to the right. Hopefully that image will remain on the right when I press the “publish” button. Whattaya think? Wanna be a game world builder when ya grow up? ~~~ TaleRocker
Another sight ‘civilians’ will probably never see. When you’re building a game world, you can turn off collisions – which means you can walk through walls, and walk through hills, and sometimes fall through the world and acquire an intimate knowledge of a different kind of ‘Hollow Earth Theory’. The solid ‘ground’ out there is a relatively flat area on the other side of a mountain range, and my builder character poked his head through the mountain. You might be able to see my partner in crime’s avatar – right of center on that flat section. – He looks like a bit of a dark vertical upright line. ~~~ TaleRocker
This a photo taken of a computer screen, before I knew how to take mulitple screen shots and get them right – & This was my first attempt at putting a river, or a stream in my first area – with ‘bridges’ that were actually single planks made huge and mostly hidden under ground. This would be in ‘the Anomaly’ section of the game – a bit of the Faery world – Where time is different and everything looks different than in the more realistic sections of the game world. ~~~ TaleRocker
The Yearly Car Show in Arnprior was moved in the year 2012 – from near the Weir where it had been held, to a street that was closed off for the occasion. Here many of the cars are lined up in front of several businesses that occupy historic buildings in the Downtown Section of Arnprior. ~~~ TaleRocker
So Far I’ve avoided adding any of our ‘Wildlife’ photos to this page. One of the really nice things about living where we do is the deer who come looking for our neighbours’ handouts all winter. We started by throwing day old bread to them, then broke down and began buying small, and then large bags of oats – cheaper than dog or cat food – and had some happy, but skiddish ‘customers’ throughout both of our ‘unusual’/’new usual?’ winters here. This was on May 15th. The mother deer who was bringing three spotted fawns around this time last year hasn’t done that, if she only had one, or none this year maybe she’s teaching her yearlings to forage for themselves 🙂 ? This hill is about 15 – 25 feet from our porch. ~~~ TaleRocker
“Leafy Undergrowth’ – I believe we were adjusting the size of the ‘background’ leafy stuff that will eventually be below whatever we ‘plant’ here in this valley. ~~~ TaleRocker
-Ever wonder about the life that happened in and around what we see today as ruins? The possible and probable intensity of feeling and – maybe somebody fell in love on the bridge that isn’t there any more? The Engineer asked his childhood sweetheart to marry him when he showed her his work? People drive by this every day and either dismiss it or don’t even see it. ~~~ TaleRocker
An Ottarian (Otter Person) exploring the Desert on Shamrock Island. ~~~ TaleRocker
Tosha, the Ottarian (left) and Xamantha, the Faax (Right) – After putting her through the racial morphing process Tosha, when viewed from the right angle, reminded me of a family friend ( Mary Ellen S. ). These two Builder Characters paused for this portrait while positioning trees.
Captured while filming a video- And I was looking in every single file of saved photos for this. Then stumbled upon it while also discovering the header photos in the saved frames from video files. Gaaaa- ~~~ TaleRocker
Silhouettes at Flower Pot Rocks- Late August, 2014 – I like the “Stranger In A strange Land” Feel – So even if it is not a perfect shot with perfect framing- I like it anyway. ~~~ TaleRocker
Snowy slopes in Glacier Valley.
Behind the Cameras at a Charity Telethon. From Left to Right: A long time volunteer with a lot of skill walks around with a hand held camera to get special shots . Center: The long time volunteer’s daughter, with a lot of skill herself, works the ‘jib’ to get shots from up near the ceiling. On the Right, The newest volunteer is walking behind the guy with the hand held camera, keeping the long cord from his camera from becoming tangled or tripping anybody. This was from May 17th, 2010 – The telethon was to raise money for the ‘Care Coach’ that brings handicapped and shut-in patients to hospitals and Doctors’ appointments in the Arnprior, Ontario area. ~~~ TaleRocker
It’s usually a lot easier to work together with at least one other person. In this case Doug the developer/designer is using the closest thing to an Ymmp we were able to come up with at that point – as his avatar. Ymmps are positive characters with notoriously (“slightly”) demented senses of humour. They claim to be the missing link and claim to have 3 strands of DNA, which they call “TNA” instead of di-etc Nucleic Acid, it’s Tri-[etc] Nucleic Acid. The wooden box is supposed to be where a wizard forgot his glasses. That’s part of a newbie quest that boosts newbies’ swimming and search skills. & This island is where a lot of flotsam washes up, sometimes good stuff- good place for Newbies to hang out & find stuff. (A recent flood left the big leaves here.) ~~~ TaleRocker
In October of 2013, New Brunswick First Nations set up a ‘Long House’ Meeting house and several Tipis near the New Brunswick Provincial Legislature Building in Fredericton, where they hoped to meet with the then Conservative Premier, who refused to meet with them to discuss “Fracking” and other issues that concerned the First Nations’ representatives. ~~~ TaleRocker
Cat Person, left, Fox Person right. We’ve been calling the Cat People ‘Khatzen’ and the Fox People ‘Faaxen’ ( Had help from young nephews with those names ) Might change one or both. Cat People are tribal, communicate with each other with ESP, bot not with ‘outsiders’ Do not use magic except for ‘religious magick’ – Fox people are magic obsessed, sometimes become unbalanced because of that. Also have a ‘strange’ moral view, where Thieves are respected as much as priests.
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