UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread

[Ryan]

OK publicity for this project is up, over at www.thesithempire.net so hopefully we'll get a few more people in on this thing.

We should hold off on getting too much more publicity for a little bit until we have more of a concrente plan. It won't do us any good to have a whole bunch of people throwing in all sorts of different ideas unless we have some sort of leadership system in place and a general idea of what type of planet this will look like.

[Joerhyno]

I agree, lets get our "Governors" first of each region... or maybe "Moffs", then when we get that established, we can better spread the word.

How should we break down the different sections that we can have people take charge of?
I was thinking something like:

1. Natural Terrain-Rocks, Caves, Bodies of water, Trees, foliage and other Landscape)
2. Manmade structures- Building, fences, towers, bridges
3. Imperials- Characters that fall under imperials
4. Rebels-Characters that fall under The Rebels
5. Townsfolk-anyone not affiliated with another faction in the "town"
6. Mercenaries/Bounty Hunters- Self explanatory
7. Animals-All types of animals
8. Other World Patrions-Ones that do not fall under any other group
9. Land and air vehicles-small crafts as speeders, speederbikes, swoops
10. Starcrafts /Starships- Larger Space ready crafts

That's all I can think of right now, and I'm sure some of the smaller ones could be combined, and maybe others split up, but I think that's a good start of different groups we could have people in charge of, what do you guys think?

[Ryan]

I agree, lets get our "Governors" first of each region... or maybe "Moffs", then when we get that established, we can better spread the word.

How should we break down the different sections that we can have people take charge of?
I was thinking something like:

1. Natural Terrain-Rocks, Caves, Bodies of water, Trees, foliage and other Landscape)
2. Manmade structures- Building, fences, towers, bridges
3. Imperials- Characters that fall under imperials
4. Rebels-Characters that fall under The Rebels
5. Townsfolk-anyone not affiliated with another faction in the "town"
6. Mercenaries/Bounty Hunters- Self explanatory
7. Animals-All types of animals
8. Other World Patrions-Ones that do not fall under any other group
9. Land and air vehicles-small crafts as speeders, speederbikes, swoops
10. Starcrafts /Starships- Larger Space ready crafts

That's all I can think of right now, and I'm sure some of the smaller ones could be combined, and maybe others split up, but I think that's a good start of different groups we could have people in charge of, what do you guys think?

We already kind of have something like that. Most of your categories there would fall under the various Team Leaders' responsibilities, but depending on how they want to divide up the responsiblity in their sections, I'm sure they could add some of those subcategories. The thing is we don't want to divide it all up too much or there isn't going to be as much continuity between the various sections.

Of course that flowchart isn't set in stone so we can always add a few positions, like say a military advisor, a research team, an animal and creature team like you suggested, etc.

[Smartypants1635]

Well, we'll all just get this taken care of at 9 pm EST in the chat room.

[Joerhyno]

where's the chat? link please 

[Ryan]

Well, we'll all just get this taken care of at 9 pm EST in the chat room.

Or better yet we get as much done here as we can and then we can talk specifics in the chat.

[Smartypants1635]

The chat room Joe, is on the main page, right under the forum link.

[Diddly]

I'm interested in doing a small bit of work for this project. However, I more than likely won't be making it to C4. I'll keep you guys posted, and I'm looking forward to the final details.

[CHEWIE]

I am thinking that my personal contribution to this will be -

- 5-10 custom citizens (which I don't need back)
- unknown number of Imperial Troops (might be a good number if we use Commtech/VOTC style Stormtroopers, might want these back)
- one custom landspeeder by Owen (which I'd definitely like back)
- ?

I agree with Ryan that this should be OT era now, I think prior to ANH when the Empire ruled with an iron fist.  It is going to be the 30th Anniversary, like said.

I am thinking we are going to need someone to create some foamcore buildings.  They need to be three-dimensional ones, and should be really cheap to ship.

For the ground on this massive diorama, a mixture of white playsand and regular playsand might be the way to go.  It could be a sandy world (not necessarily a desert) but that would be by far the most practical main terrain to use.  In the city area it could be the cleaner sand and as it gets into the wilderness, a combination of darker sand with fake shrubber that you buy at hobby stores, and some of those large aquarium trees you can buy at pet stores.

I had mentioned the idea of commissioning an item for someone to make too.  I've thought about it some more, and while I love the idea, I can see why others would not.  If one person gets paid, then others might expect to get paid too, or might get their feelings hurt.  Then the whole principal behind this is tarnished.

Whatever is done, I'll try and be a part of it and will offer suggestions to Phruby and everyone else.  But I do suggest that some of the younger members who want to participate, listen to the advice of the adults on most of this.  There are going to be things that are realistic, and others that are not.  This really needs to be planned out well.  Us adults have been there and made mistakes growing up on projects and for something this big, some of the older members probably need to have the last word. 

Hey I'm the project manager for the headquarters of a national market research agency and manage multi-million dollar projects every week - and I know that I can't handle all of the decisions on this on my own.  I'm going to have good ideas and some bad ones.  Chances are, each and every one of will have some ideas that really are not good.  So when that happens, clear your head, don't get upset if others don't agree with you, and let's make this fun.

 

[CloneCommander1]

Couldn't have said it better if I tried.  I am one of those younger members, and am going to try at every moment to listen to the older, more expierienced members.  But I think the most important thing you said is, let's make this fun!

Oh, and by the way, if anyone needs large quantities of foamcore for buildings, LMK, I have tons.

[Joerhyno]

Do you mean "older members" as in actual age, or post count? cause I may be a newbie member here, but I've been customizing for a good 15 years, had 6 years of art, an dwhen I worked full time, I was in charge of handling over 4 million dollars worth of product a year...
just wanted to know what you meant by "older members" 

[Jedi_Assassin]

I'm definatly in. I have all summer. I was thinking that we could have like a five story stackable dio set like owen d.'s death star and have it be like the apartments in kotor, except, in one room, floor, there could be the 501st be storming in on a pre rebel meeting. I could try to conquer that. those characters are a part of my photonovel. a pre anh bail, leia, mothma, all of the delegation of the 2000. I cold do that, maybe. I think that the city should have sections, the wealty, shops/cantina, and slums. that way we could show the people doing everyday things. people getting mugged in the slums, the military police hauling some drunk away in the front of a bar. the rich being escorted by gaurds. i could try to duplicate my terror cell, The Phoenix Reborn, and have them blowing up the sector governor's manor. just my opinion, but it's 1 in the morning. let me know wat i can do.

[Famine]

If anyone needs any scale landscaping advice, count me in. I don't have 4 million dollars. They won't even let me hold the telephone at work. 

Kevin

[Ryan]

Do you mean "older members" as in actual age, or post count? cause I may be a newbie member here, but I've been customizing for a good 15 years, had 6 years of art, an dwhen I worked full time, I was in charge of handling over 4 million dollars worth of product a year...
just wanted to know what you meant by "older members"

Joe, I'm pretty sure CHEWIE meant old in terms of actual age and real-life experience.

Very nice post Justin.

Foamcore is definitely going to be the way to go for buildings, walls, etc. This thing is going to need to be as modular as possible to save everyone on shipping costs, or make it easier to transport via Plane, Train, or Automobile. The more I think about it, we need to do as much prefab as possible, or the whole convetion will be spent setting it all up.

As for the terrain I've got mixed feelings on sand. It should be fairly easy to keep it uniform from part to part, if everyone uses sand. It is fairly easy to work with as well as being inexpensive. But at the same time... "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." If we have people make various terrain pieces without the sand actually on them and try and do it at the convention, it will make one hell of a mess, and I very much doubt the convention staff will like us too much. If it is applied prior to shipping and isn't glued down right, someone will be opening a rather messy box of sand. I've been considering several other options, as I'm sure others have as well, so I'm not too worried about figuring out a good terrain use.

I vote no on the use of any commisioned pieces. We are all customizers, why should one person get paid for his work while the rest of us pay to make our own? Owen's stuff is great and if he'd like to participate he is more than welcome too, if he doesn't want to donate a piece or lend it to us temporarily, we could always auction off whatever he makes at the end of the convention.

Trusting the older/experienced members like you said is going to be key for this to succeed. Already I've seen some ideas that are cool but aren't going to be practical. It may seem frustrating at times to not have your ideas be chosen but like CHEWIE was saying just forget about it and go along with the group, in the end that will be much more fun for everyone.

[Quazar]

I agree with Ryan about the problems with sand.

There are all kinds of fake terrains we can get from hobby stores.  Fake sheets of "grass" and ground and so forth.

Add some foam rocks & moutains and all kinds of fake plant life/shrubbery, etc. and we're in business!

And I think we should try to make a few large, major buildings (like the Imperial base) and plenty of smaller ones for the city itself - bars, shops, etc.  If we decide on a uniform kind of architectural style, then those that want to can make their own buildings and we can place them together along the "streets" of the town.