Alpha Test

After my visit to Heritage Key, I have a lot of thoughts. First off, I like the innovation with the Valley of the Kings, and how it is an open sim client. I don’t know much about what that really means, but from what I’ve heard, it makes it better than other online worlds, because they are all able to work with each other.

Even though I like the idea, the world itself still needs much more work. Everything so far is very gray. I was flying and took this picture of the surrounding. The setting is going to be the first thing people see when they go to the valley, therefore it needs to be impressive. I understand that I am apart of an Alpha Test, but most of these issues need to be fixed.

It was very hard to navigate from place to place. There needs to be more of a mini-map. The one mini-map that they do have only tells what direction you are facing. It needs to have features showing where exhibits are, and more importantly where teleports are. It was very hard for me to get back and forth from the valley to the initial visiting center.

Many of the other problems I encountered were more glitches than problems. As you can see in this picture (above), it looks like I am falling, except I was never flying. I was walking down the path to the tomb of King Tut, and then I was falling. I kept falling, but was not actually going anywhere. Another glitch was the painting on the wall. At one angle, the picture flattens out (below). I don’t really understand how this happens or why it does, or even it is a problem at all. It may be to just make your avatar more visible.

Overall this proved to be an Alpha Test. This has not even gone into Beta and these flaws prove it. It is still being build and things are changing every week. It is a work in progress, but it is all in the right direction. I am anxious to see the final product and how it will all work together with other open sim clients.