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===== Introduction to World Creation in The Universal =====

Welcome to The Universal World Owners' Manual.

The Universal is a customisable game engine from the early 21st century. Your 'world server' controls graphics settings, game logic and events, and you can adjust all this via settings, configuration files and server-side scripting to create worlds of various different types - from persistent world economies to team-based combat games or floating art galleries. The world server attempts to be flexible so learning all you can do with it is a long process.. 

If you're interested in old-school game design & development and have a lot of spare time & patience, then you may find building a world rather fun.

===== Things you can change on your world =====

  * Set up vehicle controls, physics and weapons\\
  * Change gameplay rules via settings and configuration files.\\
  * Choose models & textures for players, vehicles, buildings and the environment.\\
  * Modify UI layout, camera settings, lighting, weather\\
  * Add sound effects and music\\
  * Make cutscenes, intros and special effects\\
  * Write server-side scripts to control almost every bit of the game engine. \\

===== Quick start =====
Fire up the game, click 'Create World', go through the screens there.  

Once you're on your world, **F10** brings up the ingame world editor.

Check out the **[[introduction:quickstart_guide|Quickstart Guide]]** for a further introduction to the things you can do as a world owner.
{{http://theuniversal.net/screenshots/zion3/Town1small.jpg}}

===== Next Section =====
  * Go to [[world_setup:index|World Setup Overview]]
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