Main Street (2D virtual world feature)

[Melooon]

~~~ Main Street ~~~

Hello! You will notice a new Rout 66 icon (this may be a temp choice) across MelonLand pages today! This is the access button for Main Street! This is a tiny multiplayer world that exists across most ML sites and particularly exists on the Everyone Site.

Main Street lets you chat with people and walk around on every page, but its also fully scriptable and has persistent objects! Meaning that its a Bartle-complete virtual world 

When used on the forum there is one shared street for all forum pages, so you can chat with people while you are reading one thread and they are reading another

   

On the Everyone Site each page gets its own street and you can script your own custom logic and features into it! In theory this means you can now code an entire MMO on the everyone site just using native ML code and APIs. You can get full scripting details on the wiki if you'd like to code your own bits: https://wiki.melonland.net/street

   

Anyway, that aside its a fun and sorta stupid feature, so I hope you enjoy messing around with it! 

Lemmy know if you have any feature requests or run into bugs!    GOOD LUCK

[larvapuppy]

This is fun beyond my wildest dreams! 

I notice that there is a command to clear placed objects, but how do we place objects in the first place? Or is this still being worked on?  Maybe this can be a way to play with our artifacts by placing them down, animating them, resizing them, sticking them to one another's avatars, kicking them around, etc. [Edit: additional artifact-related idea: Dropping unwanted artifacts on the page and allowing others to click on them to adopt]

Having an optional standardized avatar to switch to would also be really cool... like a pixel doll to dress up...  They could be humans, or little creatures ( customizable Ozwomp-type guys? ). They could animate as they walk 

Another feature I would love to suggest is a way to draw on the page live together. There was a browser extension that did this long ago called Goggles and I mourn it every day (on any webpage, you could turn it on to see others' graffiti). I think it could get messy though so maybe make it toggleable and/or make it clear itself every 24h?

[poesu]

I'd like a feature to quit the mode. I didn't find a way to remove avatars without refreshing the page Is it there somewhere or not implemented yet?

Another question: can we someday implement this on our personal sites? Maybe only for ML users at first and then adding a guest mode? I don't know if that's a big ask, but I love the idea. Avatars make it more personal than a cursor like it is in Cursor Party.

Dropping unwanted artifacts on the page and allowing others to click on them to adopt

That would be SO COOL.

[Melooon]

I notice that there is a command to clear placed objects, but how do we place objects in the first place? Or is this still being worked on?  Maybe this can be a way to play with our artifacts by placing them down
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Having an optional standardized avatar to switch to would also be really cool
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Another feature I would love to suggest is a way to draw on the page live together.

Glad you like it  So currently the only way to place object's is via custom scripting on everyone site pages. I did think of artifacts when adding that in, and right now someone could script a whole artifact dropping system using the API, so all the support is there, its just not yet 

A profile config for avatar stuff and related thingys is very much planned tooo, it will be very needed for future plans  Are you saying you'd like some sort of avatar builder type thing? That's not something I though of before, but it sounds fun. What would it offer in its most basic form?

Drawing is a really cool idea and it fits the street theme well! I did get another request for an r/place-type drawing board in the art hub, but I didn't wanna just add the same drawing feature a bunch of other websites already have. This would be a cool twist on it.

I have questions though! Would it be like a drawing canvas you use a mouse on? Or would avatars be the things that draw the line depending on where they walk? Would people "own" their lines, or would it just be a big pixel grid.. And I guess more relevant to this script, would drawings be "objects" e.g. like a png that sits on the world like an avatar does, or would it be a separate paint-style canvas layer with drawings that cant be moved?

An important thing is that, the main street world can't adapt to the HTML (and it never will be able to). So for example if you draw a circle around a HTML button, it will not move if the button moves (with a page resize) - I made it so it assumes that either you don't care about the avatars matching the HTML page, or you coded the HTML page to be static-width-left-align, so nothing ever moves!

I'd like a feature to quit the mode.
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Another question: can we someday implement this on our personal sites?

A disconnect button is a good idea, I'd like to add a button row that allows auto loading and disconnect, along with an "online count" counter.

Yes! That's what the Passport feature I added in april is intended for  Right now the main street is ML only, but when its more built up and tested it can allow in other sites. Prob it will be a ML supporter feature to reduce grifing and keep the server stable.

[dotmidi]

Another feature I would love to suggest is a way to draw on the page live together. There was a browser extension that did this long ago called Goggles and I mourn it every day (on any webpage, you could turn it on to see others' graffiti). I think it could get messy though so maybe make it toggleable and/or make it clear itself every 24h?

This is exactly what I was reminded of when the feature added! I would really love something simliar to Goggles with Main Street!

I have questions though! Would it be like a drawing canvas you use a mouse on? Or would avatars be the things that draw the line depending on where they walk? Would people "own" their lines, or would it just be a big pixel grid.. And I guess more relevant to this script, would drawings be "objects" e.g. like a png that sits on the world like an avatar does, or would it be a separate paint-style canvas layer with drawings that cant be moved?

Goggles was interesting because it was this extension that lets you draw ms-paint style onto web pages , but only people who had the extension could also see it! It was very collaborative and I can only remember it most notably in the Homestuck fandom where people would draw something relevant to a part of the story but it would suit the forum well because of the on/off feature of Main Street. It would be nice if each area/room of the forum is treated like its own area so people could draw/write something relevant to a topic... so for example, someone could go in the art hub and maybe make a secret related doodle under artworks where you specifically have to be using Main Street and on that page to see it.  That's basically what the Goggles experience was like
I think larvapuppy is right that if we were to have a draw-on feature, it'd be best for it to clear itself... 24 hours might be good but I think having it reset every Monday like how the forum closes would be more suitable. And people owning their lines, but if there's anything uncomfortable drawn moderators should be able to clear/erase the page

Having an optional standardized avatar to switch to would also be really cool... like a pixel doll to dress up...  They could be humans, or little creatures ( customizable Ozwomp-type guys? ). They could animate as they walk 

As for customizable avatars, I really like the idea of being able to create our own Ozwomp creatures to suit us Maybe with simple shapes as bases and then we are given the ability to draw on extra details... just throwing out ideas

[MediocreMetastasis]

This feature is sick!!! I like the idea of the feature being idle in the background while browsing so you could sstumble onto other people.

There is a bug on the homepage that makes me get stuck at the bottom of the page for some reason.

Maybe make the forum main street sticky so you don't have to scroll up from reading a thread to view a chat message

[Noah_S]

Does anyone else remember towns on GaiaOnline? This reminds me of that.

[larvapuppy]

Are you saying you'd like some sort of avatar builder type thing? That's not something I though of before, but it sounds fun. What would it offer in its most basic form?
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Would it be like a drawing canvas you use a mouse on? Or would avatars be the things that draw the line depending on where they walk? Would people "own" their lines, or would it just be a big pixel grid.. And I guess more relevant to this script, would drawings be "objects" e.g. like a png that sits on the world like an avatar does, or would it be a separate paint-style canvas layer with drawings that cant be moved?

For the avatar builder, I was thinking it could be like the tamaNOTchi pet editor where different accessories could be added or removed, with colour sliders so that users can customize each item as well as the base skin colour, hair, etc. We'd need a few swappable items that always stay on, too, for pants/tops/shoes if you go with humans, and different polygonal/simple forms if you go with Ozwomp-style creatures. (for humans) you'd be gifted certain items just by joining, maybe some basic pants, skirt, and a long sleeved shirt, and maybe some basic cultural/diversity items like turban, hijab/headscarf, wheelchair, cane, etc. And extra items could be obtained either by using Artifact swap credits, finding them around Melonland sites, or by achievements like connecting to the Minecraft server, contest wins, etc.
Sooo in its most basic form you would need a base body (maybe 1-4 body types?), 10-15 basic clothing items, and maybe 10 hairstyle choices and 1-5 different faces for a humanoid base avatar.
For ozwomp-style it could either be more complicated or way simpler if you want.. I'm thinking slots for a face/head, limbs, body, and accessory. You could do 1-3 basic ones for each slot, and that would probably be good enough to allow for enough customization starting out. But you could also allow for a lot of different abstract shapes and body types, so the number of starter items could increase a lot based on that.
Some of the items I imagine would be draggable (like bows, props, toys etc), but most would have fixed positions (like clothing).



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For drawing, I think users would most enjoy drawing with a mouse, but an extra tool that adds lines where you walk sounds really fun too. It would be cool if the drawings had a chalklike texture, and if avatars stepped on them they could slowly smudge / fade away in those spots. I think a big pixel grid would be better for collaboration, rather than people owning lines that are impossible to draw over or delete, but if griefing becomes a problem maybe owning our own lines is better. A layer that can't be moved would be ideal, like sidewalk chalk, but being able to pick up your drawings as an object sound really funny too.

Does anyone else remember towns on GaiaOnline? This reminds me of that.

Yes I dooooo.. *points at my avatar* 

[Melooon]

And extra items could be obtained either by using Artifact swap credits, finding them around Melonland sites, or by achievements like connecting to the Minecraft server, contest wins, etc.

Ok, thank you for this good write up, it's a lot of help and I'be been thinking on it for the last day or so:
Firstly two members on the forum have created dress up games, and I looked into them: https://ophanimkei.com/games/gfdressup and https://thefrugalgamer.itch.io/8-bit-dress-up - the second one is open source so could maybe be adapted @TheFrugalGamer . Firstly, there's a lot of dressup type games out there and most have an image export feature, so I think just having a forum-side dressup game with the ability to export an avatar image would not add very much; the fun is, as you say, in finding the parts around the site and creating them for other people to use.

That suggests adding an item inventory of some sort to the forum, but any item inventory would conflict with the artifact system that already exists; SO I'd suggest that this should actually be an expansion of the artifact system. Essentially you could "enchant" artifacts with avatar items, and if you have the artifact, you also have the ability to use that item on your avatar. That also solves the "who creates the clothing artwork" issue, since anyone can create avatar parts as artifacts.

So with that in mind I have these ideas:

• We look into porting frugal's dressup game code (or some other code) into an avatar builder here.
• The artifact maker window gets extra options to embed avatar parts in artifacts.
• A new artifact viewer page is added to list the enchantments an artifact has and show the avatars parts.
• Better support for artifact adoption on personal sites/everyone site gets added (Maybe like a special link you can post that displays the artifact as an image, with a swap price and flags it as swapped if its already been claimed)
• Artifact "printers" are added, for example printing a Halloween hat artifact at a Halloween.

One question would be avatar base style; most dress-up systems have a standard base all parts fit onto; we'd have to pick a base (TamaNOTchi uses a base per creature type, but that's a lot of work), or let people upload custom bases and make items for specific bases?

drawing, I think users would most enjoy drawing with a mouse, but an extra tool that adds lines where you walk sounds really fun too.

I did a very quick test and it works (at least for basic pixel drawing) I think it would end up as a canvas without ownership or move-ability; normally a chalk effect is done using a brush stamp in drawing programs, I'm not sure how that would work here, but stamps would be cool! A basic smudge idea/walk trail ideal could be that if your avatars walks over some paint while in paint mode, then they start leaving a trail of that paint colour behind them as if its stuck to their feet!