[Kuroya]

Okay so I probs won't need anyone quite yet due to the fact that the lore and systems are still in development. But I'm working on a site with massive systems and lore and it's all original and asdfjkl; I learned how to skin for this sort of okay?

I'm not comfortable linking the site yet, but I've put the plot under a spoiler here for those who are interested.

SPOILER: Click to show

Clockwork: an expansive massive multiplayer game that has existed since the year 2028. The first game released by the breakout company Gearhead Productions, Clockwork did well in a market that was going to the dogs, soon putting out of business much older and more experienced games. But Earth was dying. The planet had become too polluted for continued life, so it was abandoned in 2046 for a planet hundreds of thousands of miles away by the name of Terra Nova.

But Terra Nova was not perfect either. People argued about the least little thing, squabbling until they killed each other, and one by one, governments fell. Finally, in the year 3018, someone stepped in - Gearhead Productions. The company had enjoyed a great degree of success, so what they did was propose a new way of life: they created Nihil, the floating city, and they created a utopia. Violence was illegal, and debates were to be settled inside Clockwork. And the game itself improved: it was now a virtual reality massive multiplayer online game that was powered by the very city itself. Currency in the game translated to that outside the game. Having more than one character slowly transitioned out until it was banned altogether. It was a rite of passage at the age of fourteen to make your character on the game and begin training. And soon even the position in society was determined by the power of a person's character in Clockwork.

It is now 4053. Earth is but a memory. Nihil, the floating city, is a thriving hub of activity, powered and run by the mega industry of Gearhead, which changed its name nine hundred years ago after gaining a firm enough foothold in the government to shut down all other corporations, and there's even a sister city, Latera, that was founded fifty years ago, prompting a new flood of people to the quieter neighborhoods with the cleaner skies. People haven't seen the ground of Terra Nova in over a thousand years; most don't even spare a thought to the planet they inhabit, let alone the one they abandoned more than a millennium ago. Nihil's skies are a little smokey at times, yes, but it's something easily brushed away under the bright skies of Clockwork.

And then, in the midst of a celebration of the newest patch for Clockwork, where a new version of the game was put out to celebrate the fiftieth year of Latera's founding, something happened. For the first time since the game's beginning, the servers went down. For twelve long hours, the grid was dark, bringing the citizens to a fearful halt. Never had a patch managed to bring the cities to their knees before, and it was whispered that the turbines keeping Nihil and Latera afloat would fail if it kept up.

When the game came back, it was different than it had ever been before. For some reason, all previous character data had been deleted. Everyone had lost their money and their previous belongings and abilities. Thousands upon thousands of hours of gameplay were lost, dumped like it meant nothing. The avatar screen had changed... though a more appropriate descriptor would be that it was eliminated altogether. The game instead automatically scanned your appearance and placed you directly in the game with no way to hide anything about yourself. It assigned you a race based upon how it saw you, and from there you had to select a playable class, which were greatly reduced from the previously available options.

And that was nothing to say about the game itself.

Clockwork was now set in a large clock tower, dusty and dim and devoid of light. There were a few non-player characters around, but not many. The air seemed dead and dark. The crafting systems had changed, orienting around this new clockwork-designed world. The battle system itself had even changed. The monsters, when they did appear, were massive creatures made of clockwork and animated with a vicious hatred for players. The object of the game became clear: the people of the clock tower were suffering from a dark curse placed on the massive building following the clock's halt, and players would have to scale the tower one painful, massive floor at a time before restarting the clock on the twelfth floor.

But no one quite understood what was really going on but the very highest of the higher ups. Clockwork was no longer a game. It was actually a savior mission. Earth still had people on it, and after a long period of trial and error, Gearhead had figured out how to place a person's consciousness inside of a robot that would be controlled with the same precision as that of their real body - or that they experienced in virtual reality. With no negative experiences observed in the small handful of now-deceased beta testers, the hope is through these robots, Earth can be cleaned up enough for resettlement.

But the question remains... just how long can things remain status quo when Clockwork is no longer just a game?

Basically I'm looking for volunteers to crash test a new steampunk-esque MMO site sometime in the next month or so. Just drop me a reply here if you're interested and I'll give you the link to look around at the WIP lore and systems as soon as I'm far enough to be comfortable with a reveal.

[katya]

I love systems, and I have nothing to do until school starts.

[GIA ♥]

that is one amazing plot you've got going on and i'd love to help test the systems if you'll have me.

[Kuroya]

Thank you both for the compliments! I'm making large leaps and bounds currently with the system, but I'm anticipating the abilities/skills portion of the system to be what slows it down the most. Or the crafting and monster list. And the fact that the skin still isn't technically done *wheeze* I hate learning to code things I don't understand like carousels

But that being said, I have made a lot of progress in the lore today alone, and with next week being my last for summer break, I want to try to get the system finished so I can beta test while I work on the final tweaks to the skin at bare minimum.

I will PM you both and any other volunteers who might like to beta test the link once I get a bit more set up, probably the battle system and the monster list and the basic crafting guide type things - which is my mission for tomorrow. Then I shall work on the required templates to get the place moving and able to be played with while I finish up things like abilities and skills since that's going to be painful ads, affies, and so on.

[๖ۣۜΩmega]

Hurrhurr, Terra Nova, now that sounds familiar.

This looks epic, Kuroya, sign me up~

c:

[KOI KOI]

call me mr. beater.

[Kuroya]

Awesome, thank you both for volunteering.

In other news, with the work I've been doing, it's only the most time-consuming system left with the skills and all that. Then I can toss up the official threads, throw together a quick test profile, PM all of you the link, and leave MASQUE to handle approving people and getting y'all settled to test while I try to finish the skin.

[middy♥]

I love MMO sites. I'd love to help, if you still need more people!

[Kuroya]

I would love to have more people, the more people that are able to do this, the more likely any flaws in the system can be found.

I've been catching up on neglected posts today, but I do plan on starting on the 140 required class skills today, as well as throwing together a quick ailments post and then starting on the abilities and the 3 revealed starting skills for each of those too.

On another note, if I get the footer of the forum done, I might start PMing people the link to start looking around and getting an idea for what the lore and systems are going to be, as what faceclaims they might be using.

[NEVER]

if you still need help for this i...

you spoke about this in the "link me shiz" thread so i came over and read this.

i think im in love.

[Kuroya]

Yes I will and I'm actually probably going to see what Laika tosses me for a header, throw together a footer, and then open it for the start of beta testing while PF and I finish up parts of it.

[JUNIER ✿]

I love sites with amazing plot lines and yours is just so well thought out adsfdf!! If you still need help I'll be more than happy to

[icarus]

I'd love to get on board if you need any more people :3

[ten.]

this is super cooliooo

tbh i've been stalking this but anyway I'D LOVE TO HELP OUT IF YOU STILL NEED PEOPLE. school starts in like three weeks but w/e i have free time i guess.

[Kuroya]

Okay awesome I've not been able to get to much since I've been busy - college starts next week - but I would be happy to have some more people testing the systems and bouncing around suggestions.

I just need to get this dang skin finished finally orz