Vaudevillain

Thomas moved over to the whiteboard and erased the text. Pulling out a black dry erase marker. On the board, he wrote:

Buildings

Defenses

"I'm thinking these are the two main differences in our city," Thomas said as he finished writing defenses. "These are broad topics, and I think we should look to separate more as we go on."

"I can already tell you we should split buildings in resident and utility," Jack said.

"Aren't those both the same? A base is a mix of both in the game," Oro said.

"Personal and communal buildings, then," Jack replied. "I completely expect players to build their own bases, but we're going to need places that all players can gather, like the lounge."

"And some places should be hero and villain only," Dylan said.

Jack nodded in agreement. "I think we should split things into hero, villain, and neutral."

"No no, we're going about this all wrong," Rampart said. He stood and walked over to Thomas, asking for the black marker with his outstretched hand. Thomas obliged, and Rampart went to work erasing and redrawing. He removed the two words on the whiteboard and drew a small circle. He labeled the little circle "guild building" and drew another, larger circle around the entire thing.

"This is roughly what we have concretely planned at the moment," Rampart said. "A single guild building and nothing else. Sure, there are designs for our various bases," he nodded at Dylan, "but those aren't set in stone. Realistically, they can be placed anywhere. What we should be looking at is planning where to place the important buildings and build around those."

"In that case, add in teleporter and weather machine buildings," Thomas said. "We've talked a bit about transportation and defenses. The weather machine would keep large groups from assaulting while the teleporter lets players come and go as they like."

"Add in the NPC factory too," Dylan said.

"And a crafting hub," Jack said.

"Maybe split that up into materials and inventions?" Sweet Dream added.

"Don't forget an arena for PVP," Oro said.

Nodding, Rampart listed out the suggestions people gave under the drawing. "Great. Are there any buildings that need to be close to each other? If we don't build with travel in mind, we could end up with winding roads and terrible traffic."

"Materials and inventions will need to be close," Jack said. "Can't create something without materials."

Rampart drew a line connecting the two words, "What else?"

The weather machine should be near the guildhall," Thomas said. "Along with the teleporter, that way, the players can come and go quickly, and we can rush to the weather machine if something goes wrong."

"The NPC factory should be near the materials hub as well," Dylan said. "They'll need resources."

Rampart drew more lines connecting the different suggestions. Along the way, Thomas purchased colored dry erase markers and started replacing the lines to color-code them for clarity.

"I think it would be best if the PVP arena was close to the teleporter," Oro said. "But it isn't vitally important."

"I'll use a dotted line then," Rampart said.

Once everyone imparted their suggestions, Rampart went to work arranging the various buildings on the rough map.

"Alright," he said once finished. "It should look something like this at the moment. The guildhall is in the middle, which makes sense." Rampart pointed to the building to the northwest, "this would be the PVP arena." He pointed to the building next to it, northeast of the guildhall, "this would be the teleporter. It has a straight line to both the PVP arena and the guildhall. Below it," Rampart pointed to the building southeast of the teleporter and directly east of the guildhall, "is the material hub."

Rampart continued, pointing to the next two buildings, southwest and southeast of the material hub, respectively. "These two buildings are the Invention hub and the NPC factory. The invention hub is placed closer to the guildhall, as it seems like the best place."

"I agree," Thomas said.

"Finally," Rampart said, pointing to the building southwest of the guildhall, "this is the weather machine. What do you all think?"

The players in the meeting all nodded.

"Dude, this looks awesome," Riptide said.

"Yeah, and it still leaves room to grow," Sweet Dream added.

"Can anyone think of anything else to add?" Dylan asked.

"Oh, we should have a hero and villain specific building for crafting," Jack said. "That way, players could keep things hidden if they don't want rivals to see them in the neutral zone."

"Good idea," Rampart said. "I'll add it next to the teleporter and material hub."

"For both?"

"Since Skyline will have an upper and underground, the hero only crafting area and the villain only one can be in the same spot," Dylan said.

Rampart pointed the marker at him, "Exactly."

"Oh, duh," Jack said. "Completely forgot about the whole dual split for a second."

"So, maybe a small problem," Sweet Dream spoke up. "The current plan has the weather machine at the edge of the city."

"Hmm," Thomas said. "I don't know if it's an issue. Zlo, what do you think?"

Dylan thought about it, "So far, if I haven't specified a set range for an invention, it gives me this crazy list of ingredients that I couldn't possibly use. That's why I limited the range of the levitators. I think the same could be said of the weather machine."

"That is a problem," Jack said. "If there's a set range, we can't plan around it until you make the device. Can you at least get us a description?"

"Yeah, what range do you want? That'll affect the number of materials I need."

Rampart shook his head as he joined in on the conversation, "A set range won't cut it. We won't be able to plan Skyline out in a perfect range."

"What about drones?" Sweet Dream asked, thinking back to Dr. Zlo's hatbots.

"that could work," Jack said pensively. She looked to Dylan, "If you make an insulated drone of some kind, I can make a blueprint for a lightning generator and lightning rods. We can get them to scatter around the city and activate."

"Like a giant net of lightning," Riptide interjected. "Dude, sweet."

Jack rolled her eyes, "Sure. Sweet. Cool. Rad. The main point is that we can build more as the city expands."

"Drones need power, though," Dylan said. "And I bet your lightning generators would too."

"Drat, you're right," Jack said. "We could get around it with Alienite or Phlebotinium. But wasting that much material on simple drones sounds disgustingly wasteful."

"What about a cloud cover machine?" Sweet Dream said. The others turned to look at her. "What if, for now, we make a machine that keeps us hidden in clouds. As soon as we start using the teleporters, we won't even have to worry about large groups revealing our location. We could have the city sit behind a bunch of clouds, and no one would know."

"Not a bad idea," Oro said. "we don't have to worry about defenses if people can't find us."

"We should still have something if people do figure out our location," Thomas said.

"Just make the Weather machine building a general-purpose defense station, dudes. Use clouds to mask us and have a swarm of drones ready to attack anyone coming to attack," Riptide said.

Jack blinked, "That's… actually a good idea."

"I'm full of those," Riptide boasted.

Sweet Dream bumped him, "Don't get too full of yourself there."

"Yeah, or Dream won't let you hold hands in public anymore," Oro teased.

Jack slapped Oro on the shoulder, "What'd I say about teasing her."

"Anyway!" Rampart shouted, before the meeting devolved into a shouting match. "The idea to hide Skyline with cloud cover and use drones as the first line of defense works for me. And it lets us keep our current layout."

The barrier monk turned to Dylan, "Can I ask you to plan out the building layouts?"

"Sure," Dylan said. "I was already starting to think about the different buildings anyway."

"Awesome," Thomas said. "Does anyone else have something they want to bring up?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "We should figure out a currency system."

The entire group looked at her.

"What's wrong with using the game money?" Oro asked.

"Nothing, unless you want a super who can make infinite money breaking our economy."

"What?" Dylan said.

"It's all over the forums," Jack replied. "People have been creating characters whose entire purpose is to create tons of cash. They store it for their other character to grab and use the infinite funds to trade with other players. It's been wreaking havoc on crafters."

"Why's it a problem?" Dylan said.

"It's not really a problem for the crafters," Rampart said. "It's a bigger problem for the people looking to buy."

Jack waved a hand in thanks in his direction, "Right, that's what I meant. The people who use the money exploit can pay whatever they want, which often means other players lose out. I've even heard some players are trying to corner the market by using the money strategy. They offer so much to crafters that other players can't even try to get involved. It's turning things all sorts of crazy."

"is it really a problem for us, though?" Dylan asked again. "We aren't planning on selling anything yet. And vert could fix the problem before we even get around to it."

"Besides, dude," Riptide added. "You can ask for payment in Alienite or the other one."

"Phlebotinium?" Sweet Dream said.

"Yeah, that."

"I hate that you keep making sense," Jack said.

"Alright, anything else to add?" Thomas asked.

Everyone shook their head no.

"Great. Now, I'm going to drop down and do a villain quest or something. I've been out of character for so long I feel I might forget who I am."

"Not likely," Jack snorted. She turned to Zlo, "You gonna get started on the building plans?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Need help?"

"You an architect?"

Jack shook her head, "No, but I've spent a lot of time in Cavecraft making all sorts of Redstone contraptions. Plus, I have a lot of experience building stages for theaters. I can at least help with the designs."

Dylan shrugged, "Alright."

He pulled out a notepad and pen while Jack sat down next to him. The two spent the rest of the night working on the various building designs before Dylan got off for work. The simplest to make, by far, was the PVP arena. Both players immediately thought of making a knockoff Coliseum. Jack's experience with set design helped Dylan create the amphitheater-like seats, and her expertise in other crafting games gave him some insight into making shifting terrain for players to use.

Dylan's personal favorite was still the guildhall. There was something about the hall of justice, hall of doom duality that tickled his fancy. But he had to admit the invention hub was becoming a close second. He designed the area with a futuristic motif in mind, using mathematical curves like sine waves to give that distinctly futuristic feeling. Jack suggested adding in some chrome windows and a large central hub to use as a bazaar.

"This almost looks like a theme park for skaters," Dylan joked at one point.

"I think it looks more like the ripples on a pond," Jack replied.

Dylan tilted his head a bit until he could see what she meant. "Oh, I see what you mean now."

"Not a bad thing," Jack said.

"No, but I don't know if it fits the invention theme. This looks more like something Riptide would use."

"Ugh, you're right. No thanks then."

Jack crumpled up the drawing and tossed it aside.

"You really have a problem with him," Dylan said, patiently taking out another sheet of paper.

"You would too after he broke your equipment three times trying to surf through the entire building."

Dylan winced, "Yeah, I don't think the man realizes how grating his easygoing nature can be. Want me to talk to him?"

Jack shrugged, "If you want."

The alarm went off in Dylan's head, reminding him to get ready for work.

"Alright, I gotta get off. You want to continue designing later today?"

"Maybe. The director of the show I'm helping wants to talk about set design, but she's a bit flakey when it comes to scheduling. Here, add me, and I'll message you if I get online tonight."

"Sounds good," Dylan said. He added Jack to his friends list and logged out.