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While testing Rose's setup on the Guided Tour device (available near the Neufreistadt School, home of the New Guild) I managed to create a 20 minute video, which is what the whole ride takes:
A Tour of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators
Enjoy 
"I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country."
-- Philip "Linden" Rosedale, interview to Wired, 2004-05-08
PGP Fingerprint: CE8A 6006 B611 850F 1275 72BA D93E AA3D C4B3 E1CB
Thank you Gwyneth, the video is fun!
A big thank you to everybody who participated in making this tour what it is - very nice!
Thank you Gwyn!
I'm still looking for people to ride the tour and tell me a) that it worked, b) where if anywhere, that it stopped or glitched, and c ) edits on the text.
You will need to wear your group tag to ride i think, choose "full tour" and just let it go. Don't worry about small collisions, so long as you don't stop entirely. Also, please let me know if you ride single or with someone and if you glitch early, if SL itself was having issues. (more than usual.)
Thanks to all the beta testers. Please send any suggestions.
I rode it earlier today (by myself) and it stopped dead just before entering AM....
Cindy
I tried to take the ride today and it didn't work for me.
Also, I found a "gondola" that might be of interest. It is at a shop called Andy Life-Style, on Aspendos sim. Here is a picture of it:
Actually the tour is still being tweaked, taking into consideration the comments i received earlier. The vehicle we are using was adapted from the bier wagon and the ferris wheel.. it needs to be smaller than the one you've located in order to fit into the nooks and crannies of the sim.
We also have been fortunate to have the services of both Mr JonyBlade Codesmith, of the Guided Tour Company who i am hopeful will elect to become a citizen of our community,(he created the parade technology) as well as Blaise Timtam who created the original guided tour system. We've been working diligently on this for several months, and the completed project will be available soon. An annoucement will be made when it is ready for riders. Thanks for your input.
Rose
OK, I understand.
Thank you Rose!! You're great!
Yesterday I met a first-time visitor to the CDS who had a lot of questions. I suggested we try to take the tour, and she agreed.
It went very well, and was very nice.
Thank you for putting this together!
If someone goes to work on the tour again, I have three small comments from our experience, but they are nothing major at all. They are:
- At the very beginning when we were getting oriented there were several lines of chat that appeared and were quickly replaced by other lines. We were not able to read any of it in that time. We did not really focus on that guidance until moving toward the first corner on the way to the Marktplatz. If this information is important to give the tourists, possibly the ride could remain stationary for a moment to give them a chance to read it before starting the ride.
- Around the time we left AM we were taken through a few trees. We were not injured, but laughed about it.
- My companion was surprised that there was so much description of the Greek and Roman aspects of Locus Amoenus instead of more about our community.
Again, thank you for putting this tour together. I know it was a lot of work!
Thank you Sonja, i didn't think anyone had ridden it!
1. There are already 20 seconds of pauses built into the beginning, so i think your idea of moving the information is a good one. (Remember that you can go to chat history and read what was said though).
2. Laughter is good just be happy the trees didn't talk to you! (we can make them.)
3. The tour script was drafted when Locus Amoenus was nothing but open land. I'll be happy to add any text ... most of the chat lines in the LA portion are place holders for just that. If anyone has any thoughts or text, please send it!
4. There is also an option to add sounds, gift giving and other features to the tour. It would be great if we had a fun souvenir for our visitors to take home!
I think it would be great to have the trees talk! 
They should make a complaint, like "Ow! Hey, watch where you're going!" 
A few comments.
1) chat lines are a bit heavy at the beginning of the tour (too much text), and overall text info overlaps with motion. I mean that you either read or see what text is explaning, you cannot do both at the same time. My advice is to synchronize better text info with PAUSE in the motion.
2) the view of Alpine Meadows is much more impressive if the direction is down to top and not vice versa as it is now (or diagonal); maybe needs more testing ? maybe the whole tour has to go in the opposite direction?
3) in Locus Amoenus it would be maybe better following the RIVER track instead of the first road, which runs through desert lands.
Thanks Symo.
1. I can work on the text bunching, though have been warned against the use of too many pauses. The answer will be to cut text.
2. Reversing the whole tour at this point in time would be cruel and unusual punishment! We have some thoughts for adding another route from the seashore up the mountain that would be shorter and will take advantage of the other scenes.
3. Not sure what to say here.. river would cut the LA time down even more, not highlight the sea nor the musaeon, nor the desert land, which is one thing that is different in LA. It would give a better view of the maritime theater though... which wasn't built when the tour was created. I will work on it. My feeling was that the LA part was kind of boring .. but had hoped people might have more input on the specific builds.
I really appreciate you taking the time to ride it and give feedback.
Well Rosie,
the "second tour" you propose could be a bright solution for both points 2 and 3. It could start from LA docks, run on the rivers through LA, follow CN/AM border, and up up in AM (always following the river) to the borders with NFS.
And thanks from all citizens for this great work.
I took the tour a few days ago, thought it was really good. Sorry I don't have more critical comments about things that would make it better but I thought it worked really well.
A tourist in Neufreistadt complained to me that the tour did not work, but stopped after only a short time.
I tried to take it, and found she was right! Perhaps the winter decorations should be made more passable. Here is a photo of my experience:
