Furc!Wank

• fURL: furc://drayganshollow:villageroleplay
• Website: http://www.drayganshollow.shadowsneverlie.com

You know, I’m going to have to be the first one to admit that when it comes to patching and dreamweaving I think I’m pretty goddamn jaded. Cutting my teeth in FurN meant that for quite a while I honest-to-gods only saw the one dream; over and over again. Sometimes it was done well, most of the time it wasn’t, but overall you knew what you were getting into. Same patches, same layouts, same fucking strip club. I thought I’d seen it all… then something comes along to knock your metaphorical teeth out. A dream that takes all the usual Furcadia clichés, throws them all out the window and serves up something so professional it feels like walking into a Nintendo DS game. Seriously. I’m not even exaggerating all that much.

Even those of you who haven’t heard of Kaelin’yFiae (do you live under rocks or what?) will have seen her¹ high-quality patches, either in other people’s dreams or — more recently — as part of the incredible-looking Wylde. Draygans Hollow is her well-established (literally) personal dream, uploaded as a staple part of Imag, and I have to admit that I’ve popped my head in there a few times in the past. You know you’re in trouble when you’re trying to write an impartial review of a place you’ve already considered joining. So to hell with all that; I’m not even going to try being impartial. Which is fine, because Draygans Hollow doesn’t need it; one look at the screen shots (a record amount for any review thus far) should instantly sell this place to anyone with half an eye. Make no mistake; it’s beautiful. It’s more than beautiful; it’s a dream that knows 100% what it is, what it wants and how it wants to get there. There’s no wasted space at all; every nook and cranny feels alive and lovingly hand-crafted. From the slightly worn floorboards to the creeper-wrapped statues this place feels like exactly what it’s supposed to be; a living, breathing fantasy village.

I think that’s the secret, really. There’s always a certain something that separates out the true ‘it’ dreams from the rest; something so small and so natural that most people probably don’t even notice that it’s there. With The Golden Tether it was the Mint Mink’s incredible ability to use light and animation. In the Hollow it’s patching that makes you forget the limitations of Furc’s engine by serving up landscapes that are so fluid and so… well, professional is the word that keeps popping up into my head. The interiors especially honestly look like something out of a Japanese isometric RPG. And not in that cheap, second-hand ripped graphics way, either; in the truly original sense. It’s the little details again that are the killer; the lintels and the bookshelves and the spinning wheels. The fact that you can sleep in either the top or bottom bunk. The fact that not only doesn’t the dream baulk at serving up north-east facing backed chairs, but does it such a casual way as to make it feel totally unobtrusive… do you think I’ve gushed enough over the patching yet?

Maybe, but as a refugee from TGT if there’s one thing I know it’s that beautiful patches are only half of the story; a dream with a rubbish community is just that. The DH forums are almost criminally quiet, but what discussion is there seems mature and thankfully reasonably drama-free. And while there’s definitely a solid continuity going on in the background, the mods seem fairly relaxed and players are — within reason — mostly free to participate in it or not. To be honest I think this is absolutely the way to go for a large-scale, popular dream (give players a backdrop to work against but don’t limit them too much) so maybe I’m projecting here a little, but what I’ve seen of the DH community gives off nothing but positive vibes. Unfortunately, timezones mean I wasn’t able to get into the dream during a peak period to spy on (or even participate in) some roleplay… but then again, I guess I’ve got to leave something for you people to check out for yourselves, right?

We’ve gotten down this far with nothing but fangirlish gushing, and I have to be honest that it hurts a little that this review isn’t absolutely flawless. There are some minor quibbles. Like I said, timezones mean that all the times I’ve managed to peek into DH have been during the dream’s ‘night cycle’. While I like the concept in theory, I have to admit I’m not 100% enamoured by the execution. If you’re running a client that natively supports proper day/night and weather transition effects (by which I mean mFurc) then okay, but I’ve never been a fan of the ‘toned overlay’ effect that’s used in DH. There’s something about it which seems to almost cheapen the quality of the patches underneath. Plus it’s messy around the edges, and it always seems to leave holes. Of course, there’s literally no other way of doing this effect², which is a bummer of a limitation in Furc’s engine. There are a few other niggles here too; the skin is very unfinished (as you can see from the screenshots it relies on parts of the default patch and will screw up if, like me, a visitor has replaced their default skin), avatars walk on top of water instead of ‘in’ it, I found one corner of outside where it was possible to see inside, some of the forest edges look a bit choppily unfinished and ‘Draygans’ probably needs an apostrophe.

But you know what? I’m really only mentioning these things here because they’re the kind of thing I’d be ripping into a lesser dream for having. The sheer unadulterated awesomeness of the rest of Draygans Hollow means that, fuckit, who cares? The lore, the patching, the DS and the vibe all mean that the positives here not only outweigh the negatives but totally obliterate them. The dream’s foundations are rock solid… and there’s a whole bunch of stuff I haven’t even gone into (can we say four fully-realised local species?).

Overall, Draygans Hollow is an absolute must-see; if I gave ratings, it’d get full marks. If there’s one dream in the whole of Furcadia that deserves to be the next ‘it’ hangout, it’s this place. Of course, whether the owners want it to be is another story…

Overall Assessment

• Pros: Stunning visuals, solid design, mature and friendly community… you name it.
• Cons: Fuckit who cares. Stop reading this crap and go there already!

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Popularity: 80% [?]

1. And I’d just like to say I’m guessing gender here and I am so sorry if I’m getting it wrong… [↩]
2. Okay, you could possibly achieve it with a fucktonne of DS and two whole versions of every item in the dream, but… ouch. Time intensive much. [↩]

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