Secret World GridStream Club

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Secret World GridStream Club

Postby Gridfan » Sat Jul 29, 2017 4:03 pm

I'm currently going through my harddrives getting rid of old stuff. I found this hidden away and thought to share it before I delete it.

This is from a concept I came up with back in 2008, the early in the days of The Secret World (TSW was released in 2012).

It was submitted to Funcom. Other than the front sign and the window sign the rest of the club would be neutral so it could easily be re-purposed later if GSP went belly up one day.

I never heard back from Funcom sadly.

The club itself would have been public so anyone could drop by. The three rooms upstairs would be private to the org that had "control" of the club.
Sort of like a guild building with both private and public areas. The stairs, walkway, the restrooms and all downstairs would be open to the public 24/7. And a back entrance so Han Solo'like types could sneak out after shady deals.

Click the image to open up the full image so you can read the text better.
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GridStream Club Concept.png
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Re: Secret World GridStream Club

Postby Jezebelle » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:50 pm

Looks cool. By "Hollow" floor, did you mean transparent, like the infamous Glass Dance Floor, or missing, with just a walkway around empty space?

I think FC wanted to do something like this, or at least an Illuminati-run night club in NYC, like they also "wanted' to make player housing a thing. And then sales didn't pan out and they had to fire the people who were supposed to make it happen and the nice little things they wanted to do years ago just haven't been priorities. I hope SWL works out well enough to get back to stuff like that some day.
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Re: Secret World GridStream Club

Postby Gridfan » Tue Aug 01, 2017 7:00 pm

Jezebelle wrote:Looks cool. By "Hollow" floor, did you mean transparent, like the infamous Glass Dance Floor, or missing, with just a walkway around empty space?

Hollow as in there is nothing there. a Glass floor would clash physically with the lighting rig, after all, where to hang the discoball, laser projectors, and spotlights? :)

Jezebelle wrote:I think FC wanted to do something like this, or at least an Illuminati-run night club in NYC

This early concept of mine was actually tied to that.

Jezebelle wrote:they also "wanted' to make player housing a thing

Oh I know. I only posted the image of the early concept here. It was part of an email. And from the top of my head I seem to recall outlining how other such guild houses could work.
Just 1 "club" would have been unfair, but 2-3 in a street/area could be run by 3 cabals for examples. Obviously a cabal would have to apply to get control of the place. The concept drawing was my suggestion for one suitable for a radio station/dj/dance club/entertainment cabal.
Other suggestions I believe I made was various stores, hardware, food, clothes, a restaurant/cafe, clinic, hotel, and so on.


Now if done right these places could have player run stores/places of business; and always a NPC available so players could shop/get stuff even if there are no controlling cabal members around.
Why not make the NPC the main store clerk? Because the clerk may only sell "regular" items, the special stuff would be sold by a cabal member.
I can't recall if I ever mentioned the clerk NPC part in the email though. I was kinda hoping to get some form of feedback from them (which I never got) so the email did not include all my ideas.

It shouldn't have been an issue to create a "safe" commerce street in all the major cities with a mix of these cabal storefronts/housings.
And if a cabal is unable to or not present enough to run such a place then Funcom could have given control to somebody else.

Here's another idea, when a NPC sells to players the cabal would get a percentage, and if a NPC buys a item then the cabal members get to buy it at a discount. So there could be benefits beyond just roleplay.
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Re: Secret World GridStream Club

Postby Jezebelle » Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:57 am

Sounds like a pretty cool idea, still. I wouldn't want to play the vendor character, though. I think a good number of the players are in game exactly to get away from jobs like that. And the competition for limited space would be terrifying, probably about in line with real New York City real estate pricing. And how would you deal with instanced cities if vendor and customer players have to be in the same storefront? I don't really think carving out our own piece of the actual NYC zone would work with the way they have the cities set up now.

What if there were a couple of "GaiaDoors" here and there, like Agartha entrances, but if you speak the right codeword (name of the destination, set by the owner) the door takes you to that instance. This could be used for public spaces where the Cabal operating it controls things and anyone who knows the name can enter to shop or hang out or dance or whatever. The same access door could then lead to anyone's apartment, by saying their name, but only if they have you on their guest list (or set the place public, maybe?) FC could even make little private spaces for NPCs or missions or whatever and give us a clue to get in.

That would solve the real estate problem, by just making the estate non-real. And personally, I'd hire NPCs to do the retail work.

Or instead of integrating the location into the actual city zone, like the Laundromat, there could be special, extra-expensive, exclusive doors, complete with advertising banners, so you don't need a password to visit. And they'd transport you to that instance, just like the fight clubs and Tabula Rasa and The Crusades. Only problem is, I expect they'd have to patch every time a place like that changes hands.

Oh, yeah, and they no longer allow froobs to trade directly. If spammers could just open a shop and trade, they obviously would.

Maybe it needs a little more pondering, but if you can work out some of the details to fit better with the new game, you should definitely send it in again. It's been long enough that half of the people working on SWL now probably weren't there when you sent in the original.
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Re: Secret World GridStream Club

Postby Gridfan » Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:47 pm

Jezebelle wrote:Sounds like a pretty cool idea, still. I wouldn't want to play the vendor character, though. I think a good number of the players are in game exactly to get away from jobs like that.

All day long yeah. But all day long there would be a NPC. But at special times a cabal member would be there (for like half an hour or so). Also if such a place also doubles as the cabal hangout there is bound to be cabal members around.

But point taken, a NPC could be made to sell special items as well.

Jezebelle wrote:And the competition for limited space would be terrifying
...
What if there were a couple of "GaiaDoors" here and there, like Agartha entrances, but if you speak the right codeword (name of the destination, set by the owner) the door takes you to that instance.

Now that is a pretty brilliant idea. That way these doors could be "hidden" anywhere. Some might prefer a back alley, while others a certain house or hotel or shop backdoor etc.
And these cabal instances could easily be clustered together on cabal server to save money (for Funcom) as lots of small cabals could easily be on a single server.

I think you just "solved" a large part of SWL's cabal housing problem. You should tip Funcom about the Gaia Cabal Door to Cabal Housing instance idea.

For GridStream the keyword would be GridStream (I'm hoping case insensitive will be possible to lessen frustrations).

Jezebelle wrote:Or instead of integrating the location into the actual city zone, like the Laundromat, there could be special, extra-expensive, exclusive doors, complete with advertising banners, so you don't need a password to visit. And they'd transport you to that instance, just like the fight clubs and Tabula Rasa and The Crusades. Only problem is, I expect they'd have to patch every time a place like that changes hands.


They could afford to take the time to do this for large/popular/old time cabals (which hopefully GSP could be considered as). Cabals that have larger social communities around them.


Jezebelle wrote:Maybe it needs a little more pondering, but if you can work out some of the details to fit better with the new game, you should definitely send it in again. It's been long enough that half of the people working on SWL now probably weren't there when you sent in the original.


Sounds to me like your SWL idea's are better than mine *wink*.
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