SW City Newsletter/January - May 2003
- This is an archived copy of an SW City newsletter. Mentioned events are not running and links may be broken.
| ↢ August - December 2002 | SW City Newsletter January - May 2003 | June - October 2003 ↣ | ||||||||||
 JanuaryEDITOR'S NOTEHello everyone, This edition comes a little late, partially because of my laziness. But it is still as packed full of information as ever. This month SW City returns to its roots, the classic Quake-style melee game Scarab. The city also explodes with new activity and Nutinmuch updates you with his first two chapters of his first science fiction story Breaking the Atmosphere. Enjoy! Cheers, SW Chris, Editor-in-Chief SCARAB WARRIORS RETURNSW Mase and SW Nitro have returned from the ancient days to start up a Scarab clan. The game, while graphically simple, is as addictive and exciting as the latest melee shooters. The clan Scarab Warriors has been started up again by these two, and a clan website is in the process of being put together by SW Nitro. Look for it at SWCity.Net in the coming month. If you want to join the Scarab Warriors, send a private message to SW_Nitro or SW-Mase on the Scarabian Republic ForumWM. SECOND BUILD RAISING A SUCCESSImagine a cloudless starlit sky amongst a metropolis skyline. Tiny glimmers shoot across the heavens and then wink out. It is a peaceful sight. But one glimmer does not wink out. It grows larger, morphing from a pinprick into a glowing fireball. With a sonic boom it sweeps across and down into the urban landscape. It blows across the city and even through one skyscraper to land in the bay at the far end of the city with a deafening roar. Stillness. The city becomes a wasteland. This is the result of SW City's second build raising. A barren moonscape full of seemingly ancient ruins lies in wait for you, waiting to tell its story. Sybit Island Impact Site: aw 1456.94S 3671.9E 0A 0 NIMBUS LAND EXPANDSDue to the hard work of SW Chris and Espilae, and contributions from Seiya Faye and Ferruccio, Nimbus Land has now been given a makeover! Explore the new marketplace built by Espilae and the Nimbus Land Palace built by SW Chris, a faithful reconstruction of the original as seen in the Super Nintendo game Super Mario RPG. Nimbus Land: aw 2340.4S 3466.5E 22.0A 0 OUR COMPUTERS ARE SAVING LIVES. WHAT IS YOURS DOING?The Folding@Home Team Scarabian Republic is now in place 631! In a massive project like this, that is pretty good! What is Folding@Home you might ask? It is a distributed program that a lab of Stanford made to fight the war on various diseases such as cancer, alzheimer's, parkinson's disease and many others. They are caused by proteins misfolding. Folding means the protein assembles itself to carry out its purpose(s) in your body. It's an incredibly complicated event. The lab has created dozens of simulations that mimic a protein folding, but due to the complexity, it takes thousands of computers to run the simulation. On average, 1 computer can simulate 1 nanosecond of a fold of a protein. The program has been running for a couple years now, has tens of thousands of users, and they've came up with some good results so far thanks to it. So if you'd like to join, go to http://folding.stanford.edu and download the client. SW City's team number is 11309. NUTINMUCH SCIENCE FICTIONOur resident Nut has embarked on his first science fiction fantasy tale. Excerpted from his story Breaking the Atmosphere is the following: "Buttons... Buttons.. BUTTTONS! What one is the UPS?!" I muttered as I searched for the Universal Positioning System controls. I thought If I found it, I could locate a planet to crash land on... even though I could only fly for a few hundred more miles. "AHA! Here it is!" I shouted, as I pressed the button, and moved the track ball around to locate a planet within my ships range. Thats when it happened, my Final backup engine started to leak fluid. I only saw one planet, It was only 40 miles below me. Only one problem: I had never heard of it and havent even seen pictures of it before. I decided to risk it, I set my remaning engine full speed twords the uncertain planet. ...Around 13 minutes later... "Here goes nothing..." I whispered to myself as I embraced myself for a rough ride... I saw the planet for the first time, and it looked like it had a simular atmosphere to that of my home planet, Nutopia. KABOOM! My engine blew, and my ship started spinning itself into tiny flabs of metal. I pressed the landing button, and just then a flank of metal from the ships floor swung up and hit me in the head... Blackout.
SYNTAX'S SW PICK OF JANUARYThis month's pick is going to bring us back to the year 2000. A time when SW City was booming and growing beyond belief. One of the builds that helped it's growth was this massive fountain situated right in the heart of Syntax Estates. The Tranquility FountainSATELLITE VIEW is one of the most recognisable builds in all of SW City because of it's distinct circle shaping and compass-like qualities. The fountain consists of three different parts. The most northern part, which is the smallest part, sits just above the Central Tranquility dome. Pathways of water extend down to the middle part, which is the most famous. The centerpiece of the fountain is a gigantic compass rose. Sitting right below this part of the fountain is Syntax Estates GZ. The waterways then extend down below Syntax Street to form a a large loop which drain into a pond-like structure. I chose the Tranquility Fountain as this month's SW Pick because it has always been one of those gems that SW City has. It has been laying dormant for three years now, I might as well shine some light on it again. :-) Enjoy!
FebruaryEDITOR'S NOTEHello everyone, Well, it's almost that time again. SW City's fourth birthday bash is right around the corner. We would like to know what events you would like to see, and would appreciate your comments if you would post them on the SW City Forums. There is no specific thread for it, so post your own. :) I'm sure we'll get a planning thread started soon enough, anyways. The month of January was one of expansion for the city. Projects have sprung up from the far north at Sybit Island to the deep south in Palm Grove (believe it or not!). We have had an influx of new citizens and even a brief invasion of tourists when AWC turned on tourist access for a day or two. And the month of February promises to bring even more building, and not just in a physical sense. We hope to institute some government policies that will more effectively govern the behavior of our staff. Stay tuned for further developments, and don't feel shy about joining any SW City staff member at any time to see what we're working on. Let us know what you think about the city and what could be improved. Cheers, SW Chris, Editor-in-Chief SW CITY RECEIVES CY STATUEOn February 3rd, SW City received it's much awaited CY award! The statue was placed after Syntax simply requested it from Mountain Myst. She gladly gave the z-object privelages and the statue was placed. The statue, which was long overdue by about four months, was awarded to SW City for "Community Initiative for a Community or Town" in September 2002. If you would like to get a glimpse of the shiny new CY statue, you can visit SW City Town Square. ;P Contributed by Syntax. BUILD RAISING RECEIVES AWEC AWARDSW Citians woke up to a surprise one morning. The Build Raising event that took place several months ago, in which a biodome was built on the outskirts of James River, won the AWEC Award for Best Event. Unfortunately none of the SW staff were present at the awards ceremony, which the staff regrets. The award is a trophy object, which Lady Jude is currently working with AWC to have uploaded to Alpha World's object path. "We may see the trophy by winter," said Governor SW Comit upon hearing the news. (Editor's Note: Folks, he means next winter. :P) SW City would like to thank all those who voted. We will be having more Build Raisings in the future. :) ORTON STRIP MALL EXPANDSYes, that's right. Orton Strip Mall has expanded its chain of stores with some shops that absolutely have to be seen to be believed! New arrivals include such newcomers as Vorny's Drum Shop, Butch's Bookcase, Goober Gas and Wash, and Absolutely Eep, which specializes in Eep-style clothing and accessories for the Gadzooks initiated. Butch's Bookcase also has two new book releases. Confessions of a Psychopath, an autobiography by Captain MAD Mike, and My Friend Eep, by SW Comit. Get our goods from Orton Strip Mall now! TIBERIUS FOREST SPROUTS UPShortly after the new ocean waters soaked into the vastlands (the land inbetween Vishara's River, Skexis River and the ocean), forests exploded on the south western corner. Explorers say the forest is about 350x350 coords big. Explorers also found that a crazy ol' hermit gladly took advantage of this and moved his cabin right in the heart of the forest somewhere. Shortly after discovery, city council decided to name the forest after whoever found the Qwerdy's Shrine tree in the woods that an explorer found, but failed to map. Mr John found it and, because of his named, suggested we name it Tiberius Forest instead of Mr John Forest (lol). You can get to the forest through Mavine Harbor, the only place that'll take you way out there for now. Contributed by SW Comit. OPTIMUM ISLAND GROWING FASTOptimum Island is growing with new additions such as the Bungalow Resort, the new shopping area near the docks, and the Esperion Isles has acquired some land on the mainland called Shannon Cove. Contributed by Espilae. SYNTAX'S SW PICK OF FEBRUARYThis month I decided to pick a build, or collection of builds, that were actually built within the current month. Ferruccio started a seaport on Sybit Island near Dionic Bridge. The seaport, aptly named 'Sybit Seaport', quickly grew into a large center of trade and industry for SW City. It not only attracted people in industry, but people with a lot of cash! Yacht owners from around SW City brought their yacht's to Sybit Seaport to show off their billion dollar vessels. AW moguls such as Goober King and Captain MAD Mike (^,^) even brought their yacht's to the show! So come on down and check out these amazing yacht builds or even build one of your own! Sybit Yacht Show: aw 1780.44S 3602.72E 0.15A 0
MarchEDITOR'S NOTEHello everyone, It looks like February was a pretty slow month. I guess our economic expansion didn't last as long as we'd liked. But behind the scenes we are working on some wonderful things, including a planned project with Goober King to build a realistic and fantastic looking mountain in AWTeen. Things should be picking up soon as well, with the imminent Birthday Bash looming up on us. That's all for now. Cheers, SW Chris, Editor-in-Chief SW CITY'S 4th BIRTHDAY BASHES INSW City is four years old! And beginning Monday March 24th at 6PM VRT at SW City GZ, our annual ceremonies wind up with registration for our three (Count em! Three!) building contests. Contestants will have six days to build their dream, er... factory, faaar out house, or a very profitable, um, sci-fi build. Or some combination of those adjectives... So anyways, the official opening ceremonies are on Friday March 28 at 6PM VRT, and then we will have plenty of fun at a scavenger hunt, wacky races, and then hang out at GZ playing hangman, tic tac toe, checkers, and chess. We will wind down on Saturday with a rousing game of Paintball in the world Nutopia, then tour some of SW City's builds that were built this past year, and warp it up with trivia, the presentation of building contest winners and SW Nitro's birthday party! As with all previous birthday bashes, contestants in each of the events compete for a certain amount of points. Those points are then totalled for prizes! First place gets a 6 month citizen extension and 2nd place gets a 3 month citizen extension, both courtesy of Active Worlds, Inc. Third place winner will get a $15 credit towards one item from the SW City Store, donated by SW Chris. For scheduling information and to give your own input into the schedule, please visit this linkWM! POLL ONLINE AT AWNEWS.ORGAWNews.org has added a poll asking which feature(s) one would most like to see added to Alphaworld. SW City has long supported the proliferation of the so-called restricted commands move and rotate, and in your travels through the city you may notice that they have curiously been put to use in places. ;) But it appears there are other features as well on that poll like terrain, 3-axis object rotation, and a skybox! Vote for which one you want most to appear in AW, or vote for all of them! At the end of March, AWNews.Org's Editor-in-Chief will send the results directly to AWI CEO E N Z O's desk. Lots of acronyms there... but anyways, click the linkWM to vote! SYNTAX'S SW PICK OF MARCHI wanted the March pick to be something peaceful because of all the controversy over war and all that so I decided to pick Vyseus Park. This tranquil park in Central SW City, located right next to Kithicor Forest, was the perfect choice. It's beautiful trails take you past moss-covered rocks, around peaceful ponds and under giant tree canopys. The Park is a great place to take the family for a picnic when it's nice and sunny (picnic's suck when it's tornado season). The park has a small admission fee of $1.00 for people over the age of 13 but for anyone 12 and under, it's free. The park's entrance, which is where you need to pay, also has a small pizza parlour and souvenir shop. The back of the building takes you to the park. If your the adventurous type, you can climb over the park walls into the swamps in search of the rare and mysterious Tree of Eternity named 'Kithu's Weeper.'
April, MayEDITOR'S NOTEYes, we skipped a month. But we have news now, what with the release of the 3.4 beta and Tripod strike. Onilink was even kind enough to do a world review for us. But May also marks a slowdown in most of our activities within the city. We, as most anyone else in the education system, have final exams to study for. Look for a pickup in activity in June. But until then, check out http://www.swcity.net and read The Real World news report on the front page to pass the time. And as always, keep reading. :) Cheers, SW Chris, Editor-in-Chief AW 3.4 BETA RELEASED, TRIPOD STRIKES BACKAnyone who's visited Active Worlds in the last month has become aware via the universe message that the beta for Active Worlds 3.4 is now available for download. With this new edition of the software, images downloadable from such free providers as Tripod and Geocities are no longer available, and instead show the web space provider's logo. This poses a serious threat to SW City's infrastructure; literally! Most of SW City's images are hosted on several free Tripod websites, and many many structures within the city make use of these images. Town Square is literally rife with the glowing green and black insignia of Tripod. We have been told that this change has come about because Active Worlds 3.4 now identifies itself to other web servers differently, much like how Internet Explorer or Netscape does. This means that Tripod now recognizes that Active Worlds is not part of its domain, and as such blocks the remote linking of such images. We're pretty sure this isn't Active World's fault. They just wanted to get with the times. The decision has been made, and it's not going to change, and so the SW City staff is working at finding and financing a suitable web host to house the city's images. Expect to see images hosted at swcity.net webspace within a month or two. ANOTHER POLL ONLINE AT AWNEWS.ORG(Originally posted by Goober King in the Active Worlds Community Newsgroup) Since some people in here have decided to take up the Tourist crusade again, AWNews' Monthly PollWM for May is also concerning tourist restrictions. Now, last time we ran an announced poll, we only had 36 votes, which isn't very representative of the entire AW population. Subsequently, ENZO discarded the results. So this time around, I'm insisting that you tell everyone you know about this poll so we can not only get a true representation of what AW thinks about this issue, but also so ENZO will actually consider the results! :P Remember, when you tell other people about the poll, remind them that they have to have an AWNews account in order to vote. Signing up for an account is painless, fast, and I will personally guarantee you won't wind up on any spam lists or whatnot because of it. So, if you people REALLY want to affect change, VOTE! Or, we can just keep arguing about it here in the NGs and watch nothing get done. :P It's up to you. -- Goober King Fight for your right gooberking@utn.cjb.net ONILINK'S AROUND THE WORLDS REVIEW: LADY PIPPIN'S VISIONLady Pippin's intention is to make Vision2 as faithful as possible in "Lord of the Rings" theme with the new feature terrain. Please be patient and you are welcome to visit during the recontruction. When in the world of Invision2, you can chose to explore the immense city of Rivendell or perhaps get lost in the vast maze of the Moria Mines. Of course that's not all. If you wish you can join the hobbits in there merry town of Hobbiton. Invision2 is a world of secrets, and everything can't be told here, you must explore the world on your own if you wish to find all the secrets in this world... SYNTAX'S SW PICK OF MAYWell, because of the birthday bash and all that happened back in March, I figured that I should make the next SW Pick the best build in both of the building contests that we hosted. The best building, in my opinion, has got to be the first place winner in the Residential Contest which was located in Cypris Creek. Ferruccio built an amazing house that feels really cozy. You can check out Ferruccio's house at aw 2024.80S 3357.61E 0.19A 0 . | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||