Home’s New Capabilities
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
With the new Home 1.70 upgrade came some new abilities for developers to add animations to our avatars. Some people I talked to had misunderstood what the upgrade was about. They thought that it meant that we would have more interactivity with our companions, but that isn’t it at all. This new developers tool will allow us to use various items that will give our avatars increased motions, gesticulations and the like. So lets use our imaginations and come up with ideas for this new ability that Sony has given.
For a very long time now, various people in Home, myself included, have been asking for more in the area of avatar evolution. They have enhanced the colors a bit for hair and makeup, I think I even noticed it was a bit better after 1.70 hit the other day, but there hasn’t been much in the way of true changes in our avatars for a long time. They did tweak our creation abilities awhile back, but when it comes to emotes, preset conversation and dancing, it basically hasn’t changed since day one. After almost four years of open beta, I think it’s definitely time for a change; Home has evolved a great deal in four years, and our avatars need to evolve along with it. After all, they are our representatives in Home and what we spend a lot of time and money dressing and creating personal spaces for.
A slow dance with a good friend. What could be better?
Dancing is the first new ability that comes to mind for many. Wouldn’t it be grand if we could put a dress or suit or even a different bracelet or pair of shoes on and have the ability to slow dance with another person? Or how about having several dances available to add to our current repertoire — which has become very stale at this point. There have been many dance avatar costumes released over the past couple of years, particularly recently, but these aren’t always everyone’s cup of tea — they certainly aren’t mine, and the ability to use your own avatar to dance differently will sell like crazy in Home.
It said in the description of the update that something the developers could now create for us could make us move up to 50% faster. This has already happened with the new Locomotion pieces from nDreams. But this would also lead me to believe that fast dances could be included in that. Imagine a commodity which gave you that ability, or the ability to jump, hop or otherwise do things never done before in Home. This would open up some possible new games like basketball or other sporting events to users if they could equip for it. Another thing would be fighting games, like the one in Tekken right now, only with a sword and shield that you could swing and use within the game provided. Like Mercia, but in a Home environment and player vs. player. Yes, we realize that collision detection and latency are two major issues with anything involving avatar interaction. Remember, this is a Wishlist Saturday article.
Avalon Keep has opened up some different ideas in this realm. I’ve heard people say they would love a jousting game in the new town that is coming to Home from Heavy Water. I have also heard many express the desire to ride a companion, such as a horse, in Home. A swordfighting game would fit right in as well, and this ability to add motions to our avatars would play right into that. Some people might say that having a sword that works in Home would lead to people misusing it in public. But they already have guns, and even balloon people who can shoot at you, so I say what is the difference?
Another new ability that I would like to see is holding hands, or even hugging another avatar. Kissing wouldn’t be bad either, but before you get up in arms about the abuse this might cause, it could easily be controlled by needing to have the same bracelet or ring or whatever as your consenting partner before you can actually do this. The new ignore abilities we have been given to stop offenders from emotes would put the stops on any abuse anyway as you could just ignore them and they wouldn’t be able to use the items whether they had it on or not. I think that it is very interesting how these two new changes came in the same upgrade of the system. In a way, they go hand in hand. So to speak.
The new flying abilities that Home has brought recently are fulfilling a big desire that many people in Home have wanted for a long time. The essence from Juggernaut that gives us flying in any apartment, and nDreams’ new public Locomotion movements, are truly an awesome addition to our range of expression. The public ones have a limit to them in height, as you fly close to the ground, but I hope they increase these as time goes on and the developers get a chance to really tweak and work with the stuff they have been given. I think this is only the beginning, and it is going to be a very interesting ride over the next several months.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane!
Now that this ability has been added, I think certain Home costumes need to be tweaked, too. I have already heard a call for capes; if you are going to fly like a superhero, why not look like one? Capes that float with the wind as you fly would be awesome, and many of the people who play DC Online would snap those up in a heartbeat. Wings are already a staple in Home, but wings that move as though flapping would be another great idea. All of these would sell, I suspect, and if they can be used as the apparatus that allows you to fly, that would be cool too.
I don’t know if these ideas are what was intended for these new abilities, but it would certainly be nice if they could come to pass. I can dream, can’t I?
October 6th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 1 comment
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
What an awesome wishlist Buurbie! I so agree that it would be nice to jitterbug, two step, or waltz. Or to hug -I would love to give you a great big ole hug right now for writing this article.