An Invitation to New Babbage to Participate in the New Toulouse Mardi Gras Parade

To the Ladies and Gentlemen of New Babbage:

Mardi Gras is but a few weeks away and the Estate of New Toulouse will
be having our Fourth Annual Mardi Gras celebrations from Saturday,
February 18, 2012 through Tuesday, February 21, 2012.

We invite anyone and everyone from all Steamlands (and other)
communities to build a float and to participate in our parade. We are
also having a contest for Best Float with cash prizes going to the top 3
floats with the most votes (1st $2000 L, 2nd $1000 L, 3rd $500 L).

 

Like New Orleans, New Toulouse has “Krewes”, or teams, that work
together to create floats and that ride them together during the parade.
A Krewe can be anywhere from two to five people. You are welcome to
create, and name, your own Krewe. To learn more about actual world
Krewes go to http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/parades.html
– this information can help explain what Krewes are, how they work and
hopefully provide you with inspiration for your own Krewe.

If you form a Krewe, please send a notecard to Rose Springvale NO LATER
than 11:59pm SLT on Tuesday, February 14 with your Krewe name and the
names of all of the members of your Krewe. I will not accept Krewes
after this deadline.

The parade is going to be quite a bit different this year. Last year we
discovered that it was simply impossible to schedule a single time for
the parade. The sim was crushed with people and the lag was so bad that
no one could move. The parade did not even happen due to this.

This year instead of one scheduled parade, we will have a “constant
parade” called The Always Marching Mardi Gras Parade. It will run all
day, every day from Sunday the 19th to Tuesday the 21st. I will be
automating the floats with scripts, so you will not manually drive them.

In New Orleans, each Krewe has their own parade and we are going to do
something similar. Your Krewe will pick a block of time at any point
during the 3 days and during that time block the parade becomes “yours”
and your entire Krewe can ride your float. This will enable you to
select a time during which all of the members of your Krewe can be
online. You won’t be forced to conform to a sole, specific time. If your
Krewe would like to pick multiple times to “lead” the parade that is
fine. If you would like to build a float that is just meant to run on
its own, look cool and not be manned, that is ok too. Other people from
other Krewes are welcome (and encouraged) to ride their floats at any
time over the day.

Obviously it will not be possible for each float to be manned 24/7 for 3
days. We are going to encourage visitors to the sim to ride the floats
themselves.  Therefore this years parade will be more interactive with
visitors. There will be a float loading zone where the floats will stop
and people can hop on.

When your float is complete, you will need to pass me a FULL PERM copy
of it, because I am going to install the script and config card into the
float base.

You must drop your float on me BEFORE 11:59pm SLT on Thursday, February 16 in order to run your float in the parade.

If you have any questions about The Always Marching Mardi Gras Parade,
please contact me, Gabrielle Riel, via notecard, IM or email
(gabrielle.riel@gmail.com). Rose Springvale is the Krewe signup contact.

Sincerely,

Gabrielle Riel

——————————–

*Float Specifications*

Please use the following specs when building your float:

 * IMPORTANT: Create your float base as a rectangle with the following size coordinates: X = 6.0, Y = 0.5, Z = 4.0

 

 * IMPORTANT: Rotate the base 90 degrees on the X Axis

 

 * The float can be no more than 29 prims (this limit is due to the # of
available prims on the sim and so you can set it up to drive manually
at some point in the future if you would like to do that)

 * Please set your float base as your root prim

 

 * Keep in mind that you will probably need poses in the build for your riders

 

 * Please build your float with at the very least a *nod* to vintage style

 

 * Sculpties are ok

 

 * Scripts are ok, HOWEVER keep in mind that more scripts = more lag. Also, please do NOT place your scripts in your float base.