Avatar Review: Seawolf Dragon

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

When most people hear Seawolf, they think of an awesome, apparently affordable dragon avatar. Well, that's not entirely true. While it is a dragon avatar, and some aspects of it are awesome, overall, it's not as great as most people think it to be.

Firstly, the avatar is above most people's price range. While there are 3 of these dragon avatars, giving people the choice of a cheaper smaller version, over a large, and expensive version, the cheapest of these is still L$ 1200. While some people would gladly pay that much for an avatar, that looks this cool, it's still asking for so much, to give the buyer, so little, compared to the amount the buyer pays.

While you do receive two dragon avatars, in the juvenile, they are not really that different, in fact I will be talking about that soon. Also, you don't really receive very many attachments, and variations. You really only get a small bit, after paying a large amount.

Like I said before, the two avatars aren't really that different. Actually, looking closer, you can see that almost all of the biped parts, are simply parts from the quadruped avatar, just moved around. The few parts that aren't from the quad avatar, include the hands, the tail, the head, jaw, and the neck. The rest of the parts, were just moved around, stretched, and rotated to fit. You basically pay 1200 L to get the same avatar, twice.

When in flight, the wings always flap, however, they aren't that great of wings for flapping. There is really only 2 parts, on each wing, that actually rotates with the flapping. The part that connects the wing to the body, is the first part. This part ends before it passes the first claw on the wing. The second part is the rest of the wing, which starts where the first part ended. This makes the wings flap as if they were hitting a box, on their way down.

Flying doesn't look so good on the juvenile avatar either. I understand that they are supposed to be young, and learning to fly, however, that does not mean they bounce around as they fly. It gets a bit confusing to a lot of people, while flying in mouselook, since they're bouncing around too much.

However, there are good things about the avatar too. They do look like dragons, which is something, considering most dragon avatars don't even resemble dragons. They have mouselook breaths, which makes them good for use in roleplay sims. They also have a color change hud, which makes it possible to get more colors, than other avatars have.

Despite the fact that these avatars have many cons, they are still some of the best avatars in Second life. All in all, these avatars are on a class all their own, when it comes to greatness.

Theonlyjohnny Resident

Battlebeasts' Release Party

Last week, the Battlebeasts held their launch party, with live music by a variety of residents, hunts to find things, and of course, the Battlebeasts themselves. While I didn't buy any myself (I burnt out on the Meeroos, having about 112 of the things at one point), the event kicked off strongly and everyone had fun all around.

There were some technical glitches (mostly waiting a couple hours after launch before the Battlebeasts were able to be purchased, and an upgrade to the food that was recently released because LL broke something -else- that didn't need fixing) but for the most part it looked like a smooth run. There was also a hunt going on for tiny buyable crystals with extra toys and shinies hidden in them, but my attention was elsewhere and I didn't stay long in any one place to really go looking for them.

Already there seems to be more things in the works. I saw scattered "Dragon Crystals" around and I was told their use would be revealed in a week or so. I haven't playtested the battlebeasts myself, but I may in the future once more varieties come about. Single dragons cost just shy of 700 $L, with bigger packs costing more (1825, 3600, and 5000). The dragons currently come in six scaled patterns (Orange, Green, Azure, Blue, White and Black, with Blue being more of a purplish hue than the Azure) and six "glass eye colors" (Green, Blue, Red, White, Orange and Purple). I'll be doing a follow up in a few months to see what other things are released or come down the Battlebeast line, and will write about them here.

Battlebeasts currently can be found at Divine Dragons At Omega [Serena Becuma (227, 194, 23)], GeneSys Breedables Rental Office [TK Genesys (45, 210, 21)], The Knights of Battlebeast [Amon Ambar (175, 185, 22)], Blue Fusion Lost City of Breedables [Blue Fusion Breedables (204, 127, 21)],St Georges [Britannia (181, 116, 21)], Rainbow's End Breedables [Whispering Angels (97,111,25)], Wheels Family Breeding and Auction [Seadramon (108, 72, 1001)], and Xxtreme Oasis Breedables 2, [Xxtreme Oasis Breedables2 (224, 45, 21)] --- although I am sure more stores will be cropping up soon.

Xymbers Slade

Battlebeast Breedables

Sniffing around the Grid, recently I was whispered about something called the BattleBeasts --- dragons who are essentially breedables, but which also have combat statistics added. As I have not yet seen that concept in Second Life work to a satisfactory extent, I tracked down BattleBeast Resident, the maker of the Beasts, and together with Wynter Sommer, and Andi Canare (two others on the Battlebeast team; Wynter is the project dev manager and Andi is the director of marketing), we sat down to discuss what was coming forth as the BattleBeasts haven't officially been released yet.

Development of the BattleBeasts, which are a series of dragons, started last September. Battlebeast remarked he was facinated by how successful breedables are as a whole (when there's no one to sell to but others interested in breedables) and what he's done here is "cross-fertilized groups of interests". They bring something to the gamers (dragons and combat) and something to the breeders (the ability for the dragons to breed). It's a "synergystic" sort of thing --- better breeding means better battles, and better battles may make for better breeding afterward.

Now, obviously, SL isn't the greatest for programming. We all know that if you ride most physical objects, the control is garbage and you end up banking or barrel rolling, then faceplanting yourself into the nearest cliff. I asked Battlebeast the one thing he was unable to do in SL due to limits in SL, and what surprised me is that he has been LSL coding for several years. If he has that kind of experience, then limits don't exist, only workarounds. Indeed, the real challenge is getting it to work across multiple viewers (Firestorm, Phoenix, the default, etc). The only real problem is "there can be only so many ideas. Which ones are best for the breeders... for the gamers? Which ones do we use, what's the priority, what do we do afterward for the beta tests, etc."

Naturally, being breedables, they require food and water to eat to keep up their strength. Based on and named for ancient herbal remedies, they influence the dragon's Vigour (akin to health), Euphoria (happiness; an unhappy dragon probably won't mate) and Desire. There are also boosters to boost up the statistic in question, with each booster being allowed only once every 24 hours. Battle is done by HUD, in a turn-based manner, and the person who drops the other one to 0 HP first is the winner.

BattleBeast Resident further said "Our goal is to be innovative but also recognizable for breedables fans. For many breedables, things can be passed down in a sort of 'it either gets this trait or it doesn't get it'; here we get the possibility to strengthen it the more it breeds in." I mentioned that I heard they could "patrol" a person's land. Naturally I thought this was a security feature built into the dragons (which I think would be nice, but according to BattleBeast, "The idea was floated, but we're not trying to be in the security business. It's just random wandering."

Sure, all of this is well and good, but can they compete with the Meeroos and the other more famous brands out there in Second Life? "Yes. We don't have dreams of being rich, but we do have dreams of being successful. We're inspired by what has come before us and have improved on that. We've developed a 'touch-coupling system' for breedables. You can pick which dragons you want to breed rather than waiting for random connections. ... or if you want a free for all, you can do that too."

What about variety and cost? The 'roos have dozens of patterns, and they're also expensive to upkeep. BattleBeast had this to say: "That's one of our trade secrets. We have the colors, patterns and textures for a lot of dragon types, but we're keeping a tight lid on that, for now. There are five in beta, but we have a lot of surprises coming. There were 50 people in the closed beta test, and we expect many more for the open beta. Cost is another secret for now, because right now the hype is high. We would rather keep the energy focused on the energy on the dragon. The moment we shift that focus away, it takes away from the entire experience. Not one person visiting has asked the cost, nor what they have to buy in order to get the dragons going. Nothing talked about price at all. It's not where we're focused. It was never about money, it's always about experience to others."

One thing that surprised me is that Battlebeast said there is already a LOT of interest on these dragons coming up. "In the beta, people are excited. And I mean excited. They're making sims, castles, stories, everything. There is a lot of interest with resellers and we have affiliates worked out along with our premere store. I am eager to release as soon as we can, but everyone else has the veto power so we can polish it to a perfect shine."

The Battle Beasts can be found at the Le Terassa Sim, (236/128/21) and will be available ... when they're ready. They plan on kicking things off with a two day launch celebration (which yours truly will probably attend). Everything else about them can be found on their website, at www.BattleBeastBreedables.com.

If the hype matches the product, they will give the Meeroos a *run for their money.* I'm going to play conservative here and give room for the hype to hit as hard as they're expecting it to. So I am going to say Four Dragon Hoards out of Five; I was going to give it three because this has real room to take off but the professionalism of the group that started this thing up was just through the roof and it would be wrong not to make note of it.

Xymbers Slade

*Editor's Note* Check this review from Inara Pey.

Dranopia Quest

A few days ago, something called the Dranopia Quest was advertised on the login screen, and curious, I came to check it out.

Visiting the Dranopia Quest area, you begin on a huge island in the sky, with the "rules" of the area over on the nearby wall. Your goal is to hop on a dragon, descend into the canyon below and try to collect as many gems as possible. It sounds simple enough until you remember that the physics of SL and riding flying animals absolutely sucks (I speak from my experiences as a gryphon with a saddle; if you bank, you either do a barrel roll or just tip over) and that there's an additional little difficulty spike in the game: You only have four minutes to snag the gems.

According to the wall of information, you get a choice of dragons to ride: Water Dragons add Endurance (ride a dragon for too long and it despawns; these last longer), Earth Dragons add Stability (not sure what this was), Fire Dragons add Speed, and Air Dragons add Agility (easy to control). In my first time there, I saw no difference in power, but that was just because the place was packed --- the place's a homestead, and almost at all times of the day and night it had the full 20 people on it. The whole place is a no-fly zone, fortunately there's a sign you can click for a landmark back to the top, or an "elevator" to bring you back up.

I like being able to control my character; in the various racing games I played as a kid, I always played a character with great control, not so high damage output or speed. So originally I selected Earth dragons for stability, until I found the Air dragons were much easier to control (especially at off-hours of the night when less people were around and the lag wasn't so bad). You move with the arrow keys; be sure to turn off local chat. Otherwise you'll be left typing a long string of Es and Cs as pressing E makes it go skyward and pressing C noses it into a steep dive. The diamonds themselves are worth points, with white ones (1), yellow (2), green (5), blue (10), and pink (20), and if you're thinking about flying through the same gem more than once for point-spamming, they don't register on the third fly-through (nevermind it's almost impossible to orient and do a second run through the same gem let alone a third time).

The obstacles include floating trees that make you lose control if you hit them, and the Groms --- enemies that bear a strong resembelance to the Malboros of Final Fantasy 6. Hit the former, and you'll go bouncing out of control, as they're physical objects. The same will happen if you hit the trees on the ground. Hit the Groms, and your points are blanked. This is not a good thing, as you want the most points you can in the 4 minutes alloted.

The one with the highest points by Febuary 9th wins a $20,000 $L voucher for the Dranopia sim, where you can buy the dragons themselves to decorate your home. As I understand it, the dragons are also breedables, but there doesn't seem to be much variation other than the four elements (and the fact they can be ridden).

Now, I know that flying on ridables isn't the most stable thing in Second Life. I have several quad avatars (yes, people can "ride" me) but the control is utter crap. And by that I mean there's absolutely no control at all. If you bank, you're going to tip over or do a barrel roll and then end up upside down. Control WAS crap while the place was packed to bursting, but when the place was empty it was a lot easier (not turn-on-a-dime easier, but still it's better than most flying areas that I've seen in SL).

Sniffing around a bit more, I tracked down one of the sim creators, Leni Galli. English wasn't her first language, so I have edited the interview slightly for a little bit of clarity.

Leni Galli: Hello, nice to see you.
Xymbers Slade: One sec while I get a good screenshot and then I'll ask a few questions. (smile)

Leni Galli: Sure (smile).

Xymbers Slade: Ok, the first thing I wanted to ask, for those who haven't seen the quest area yet, what exactly is the Dranopia Quest you set up?

Leni Galli: First it is a fun game, and second it is to make Dranopia more popular (grin).

Leni Galli: Do you need more information about the game?

Xymbers Slade: So I see. I thought it was just something standing alone... and instead it's something to bring attention to this sim as well. :) How long did it take to create the Quest? It looks like it took quite a bit of effort to get it underway.

Xymbers Slade: And sure, more information about the game itself would be helpful (smile).

Leni Galli: Yes you are right, the Quest should draw some attention to Dranopia and to make it more interesting. Not only for breeders but also for people which like beautiful landscapes and storylines. We love to create landscapes and items with a lot of details especially sculpted prims and now also mesh prims. We needed one year to create Dranopia itself and the game was actually just a add-on for our breeders. But we are surpised that so many people are interested in it. The game is set very simple...you just have to fly around and collect gems/diamonds in order to earn points in 4 minutes and expands the story about Dranopia itself.

Xymbers Slade: So these dragons are breedables as well? Do you find you get a lot of business, what with the other breedables in SL being quite popular (especially the Meeroos)?

Leni Galli: Yes all of the dragons are breedables but we do not mention this because the word breedables seems to have sometimes a bad reputation. We can not compare ourself to the Meeroos because they are so big and popular and have a lot more experience than we do.

Xymbers Slade: Good point. I keep thinking that with the Meeroos available it's difficult to compete. In programming the quest, what was the biggest coding problem... or was there anything you wanted to do but could not? And what are the difference in abilities of the dragons? Other than looking pretty, that is. (smile)

Leni Galli: We hope to be as popular as they are one day.

Leni Galli: Oh yes we had so many great ideas but couldn´t realise all of them since we do not have that much space and too little preems. For example we would have liked the Groms to have an AI.

Leni Galli: Not only that the dragons look different and pretty but they also have different flight characteristics. For example the air dragons has agility, fire has speed, earth has stability and water has endurance.

Xymbers Slade: What do you mean by Endurance exactly? Do the dragons die off if ridden too long?

Leni Galli: Endurance means that they are able to fly longer in contrast to others. The dragons don´t die when you fly them to long, but they get tired over time and need a rest.

Xymbers Slade: What are the prizes for the Quest?

Leni Galli: if your name is on 9 February at the scoreboard, 1st place is a 20000L$ voucher, 2nd is a 5000L$ voucher, third is a 2500L$ voucher, and fourth through tenth is one Dranopia Starter Kit with a value of about 1850 $L. The voucher can be redeemed in the Dranopia Shop or Timmi Allen Team Shop.

Xymbers Slade: Ah, vouchers for Dranopia products, I am assuming. I take it the dragons will need food/water the same as any other breedable? (smile)

Leni Galli: yes, but they only need food. Other things are available, but they are not necessary in order to keep the dragons alive.

Xymbers Slade: What's next for Dranopia? Do you have any major plans to expand or add?

Leni Galli: Next, we plan the path of the ancients, and a "release" function. There will be the ability to release your Dragon into freedom. Your Dragon will say GoodBye and leave a crystal behind in order to be remembered by you. That special crystal can be kept as a souvenir and is able to give you ongoing information about your released dragon and its ancestors.

Xymbers Slade: That sounds like it will be very interesting to see once you bring it out (smile). That wraps up my list of questions; I'll write up a little review and point you to it when it goes up on the Newser. Should be sometime this week. :) Xymbers Slade: Here's hoping you become as popular as the Meeroos (smile).

Leni Galli: Oh thats so nice. Thank you very much and thank you also for your time, interest and support! Have a great time!

I'm giving it a strong 4 Dragon Hoards out of Five. I would have given it five out of five easily: the concept works and the effort really shows, but SL's screwed-up physics and the lag of a full sim really took away from it. Of course, now that it's out of the spotlight on the main login screen, it -should- be easier to navigate.

You can find the Dranopia Quest at Virtual Services (138,140,205), the Dranopia shop can be found at Sculptie Wonder (87,74,1020), and the main Dranopia area is at Sculptie Wonder (213,12,21). Hurry before Febuary 9th ends!

Dranopia can also be seen at www.dranopia.com.

Xmbers Slade

*Note* - Dranopia Quest has a lot of mesh objects, so a mesh-capable Viewer is needed.

The Bergons: Second Life's Newest Pet Dragon

While out visiting Caledon the other day, one of the residents got into a huuuuuuuuuuuge dragon, larger than even the Seawolves I've written about before (not much bigger, but it WAS bigger). It looked like something out of the Isle of Wyrms (same visual feel at first glance, anyway), and after engaging the avatar's owner in some dialogue and doing an object profile to see who made it, headed to the EQuality and Teagan sims to have myself a look.

What I found were the Bregons, which are small breedables of the same kind of breedable thing that everyone seems to be into these days. I knew there were horses and rabbits out by various makers, it was only logical that the fire-spewing beasts of lore were not far behind. I've never understood the thrill of having breedables, as they're usually physical objects that aren't (in my opinion) animated very well and lag down the sim that they're on. Then again, I fell for the My Little Pony craze earlier, so it's pot calling kettle black. :)

The Bregons are listed as being able to grow from hatchling to breedable. All you need to start is an egg and some "food", both purchasable from the sim the Bregons are sold. After clicking on the egg, it hatches after a given amount of time (I have not experimented with it) into a female or male with a 50/50 chance of either. As long as the "food" is close by, the dragon will continue to grow from hatchling, to baby, to youth, to adult, to breedable. As the Bregons I saw roaming the sim were all the static, moving-in-spurts-poorly-animated variety (Four-legged non-avatars are not SL's specialty, it's the same reason I have yet to see centaurs done well) and I remembered from my early days in SL how much I didn't like what breedable dragons there were at the time, I was not interested in them too much.

The notecard I got for the Bregons says that it takes 12 hours after a dragon hatches (with "food nearby) to become a Baby. Babies come in 135 different random skins, 115 different eye textures, 34 spike textures (with 4 main different shapes), and 60 different wing textures. All generated randomly, therefore the chance to get the same one is very low. I went down the notecard and it looks like there are various "types" of Bregons: A, B, H, and J (with sub-types A+, B+,H+, J+, A++,B++,J++, H++, and 6 queens). What followed was a lengthy list of what happens when you cross one breed with another, which made me think of some kind of genetics chart listing -all- possibilities. Well-thought out, at any rate.

After the baby hatches, it takes 5 days to turn a baby dragon to a youth. Then another 10 days after that, from youth to adult. After that, -75- days to go from Adult to Rideable and Eternal (20% chance; Eternals don't die). The food bowls only last fifteen days, meaning you need to buy more in order to make sure the dragon grows to full size. They stop growing if they run out of food (I don't know if they can die, but I did not test them out on my own as I am not going to spend all that time waiting for them to grow).

With timers like that, I am wondering why one would go through all the patience required to get their very own breedable dragon, when there are already many breedable avatars out there (both the Seawolves and Spider Productions dragon avatars have rezzable saddles, for example). I asked the sim owner (ED Exodus), and he said "The whole point of doing them was for fun really, but I was shocked how huge the breedable market is in SL and how fast it grows. I agree with you that getting an av dragon that you can ride will be much cheaper, but I can say 90% of the people buying Bregons are not looking at them as a rideable dragon... more than just a way to do business and money."

The Bregons also have a "breeder" (which I think is sold separately, as I didn't stick around long enough to check), which naturally requires a male and a female Bregon to be close to each other in-world in order to "breed" and produce a new egg. The Bregons are labeled to be transfer, from eggs to full grown rideables, so that is definitely an unusual way to start up a business breeding different eggs and trying to catch them all, so to speak.

While camming around the sim I came across a Staff of Jewels. Apparently if you have the staff (500L) rezzed, the dragons generate points toward free Bregons products and merchandise. I could see an idea like that being very beneficial to several other businesses. I also came across a series of one-time-use jewels (100L per Jewel) that enable you to change the look and appearance of all Bregons in its radius in various ways (different jewels for wings, spikes, etc). Naturally, a hud of some kind would be easier, but sims ain't going to support themselves on their own! ;)

I'm going to give this a guarded Four Dragon Hoards out of five. This guy obviously put in a LOT of work to make these two sims work into a bustling business (he did say he was surprised by the way the breedables took off in SL). He is obviously Doing Something Right. Breedables in general are not my thing, but if you're into the breedables, then visiting the EQuality and Teagan sims, where these things are sold, might be something to check out.

Xymbers Slade

Dragon Avatar Review

So, wandering the Grid, I decided to go out and revisit some of my favorite dragon avatar makers. Dragons of all shapes and sizes are one of the less common avatars I see these days, so I thought that spotlighting a few of them, people would know that they're out there and available for purchase.

My first stop on my list was the Isle of Wyrms. It's a big place, very mountainous, with a giant cathedral where the dragons are sold.

The first thing I noticed about the Isle of Wyrm dragons is that they are ornate. Very reminiscent of Eastern dragons. They're also very static. The last time I had one of these, there were no or very few flexiprims. With all the dragons that are out there with flexis for the wings, this could be a point that hurts them just a little bit. They're very customizable, with dozens of scale textures/colors to choose from (per dragon), and they also have a Bast and an Anubis dragon which is something I haven't seen others try to recreate.

The second thing that I noticed is that the dragons seem to be in a "limited edition" or limited hatching (there were only 3 fire dragons left when I dropped by, for example). I am not a part of the Isle of Wyrms groups so I don't know if it's a RP reason behind the limited hatchings or not, so you will have to visit and see for yourself.

The third thing I noticed is that they are *pricey*. Adults cost 3500 L. That's the most expensive dragon I've seen on the grid so far. Is the price too high? I don't know, I don't build so have no "effort-to-cost" appreciation.

RATING: 2 Dragon Hoards out of 5. I'm biased, they're just not my style and I personally think they're too expensive for their appearance. Your milage may vary. If they weren't popular to begin with, however, they would have disappeared from the grid entirely due to lack of business. So clearly the Isle of Wyrms is doing something right.

Next Stop: Grendel's Children.

If you haven't heard of Grendel's, find it in Search. Now. They've been around a long time and at least to me, have become a synonym for quality content, variety of all kinds of avatars and inexpensive pricing.

There are two varieties of their dragons. Their originals ... *does a double take* Oh hey, they're 0 $L now. I remember when they were 500. Anyway, their originals are larger than a normal avatar and are very very well done, with flexi-tails, extra purchasable breath weapons (15 $L, last I checked) and excellent scale detail.

Their most recent versions are more sculpty, more flexi, more detailed, and less expensive than others, costing about 500 $L. They have them in Plains, Canyon, Forest and Ravine dragon varieties.

They have a lot of other types of dragons (eastern chinese dragon avatars spring to mind) and a few two-legged varieties as well.

RATING: 4 Hoards out of 5. Good variety and very low pricing make it the perfect spot for those of you who want dragons but are on a budget.

Next, it was off to Kinzart Kreations.

They have four varieties: Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern. They're not quads, they're anthropomorphic. So if you're looking for the four-legged kind, look elsewhere. Variety is large and prices are good (1000 to 1500), and the style is a bit unusual. The Northern Dragons look a little bit like a winged lion with horns (lack of better words, it's in a good way), the Eastern variety have a definite chinese feel to them, while the Southern ones look like something reminding me of Bahamut (and it would not surprise me if that was the inspiration).

The avatars come in decorative boxes, which is a nice touch. I had several eggs in my hoard on my home sim for the longest time, having bought almost every variety of two different varieties (at least until the next shiny thing came along).

RATING: 3.5 Hoards out of 5. The effort shows and it's a nice choice if you want an unusual style in your dragon.

After that, it was time for a quick trip to the Spider Productions vendor in the Northstar Mall.

They're a maker of anthro dragons as well (no quads here) but the textures are very very good and the animation of flight is one of the better ones I have seen on SL. They too have their dragon boxes as collectable decorative eggs, and on top of that, their dragons are rideable in the same way a normal four-legged dragon is, which is unusual. I haven't seen many anthropomorphic dragons that have a saddle option.

They are EXPENSIVE : 2800 $L for either gender (each sold separately). However, this time I will say the work shows and this is a reasonable price for such a dragon (I would have charged maybe 2000, but I'm not the creator so what do I know). The hands are posable, the wings and eyes are recolorable, and they advertise a "hud packed with tons of features but only one script" --- I have three of these dragons, and I can vouch that this is a non-laggy dragon. :)

RATING: 4 Hoards out of 5. They could use more scale colors (even though they have about a dozen), and they should probably put both genders in one box, in my opinion. Their female dragon is a bit "blocky" in the chest, but I guess that's what one gets when one is effectively having a scale-armor bra stuck to your chest (grin).

Final stop, the Seawolves.

Everyone by now has had to have seen one. You know, the sim-sized reptilians stomping about or flying through the skies (and when I say sim-big, I mean they are huge, approximately 30 meters long and ten high for their Ancient size). They have juvenile and adult varieties too, which are Big and then Really Big, but I think it is the Ancient ones that they are known for the most. The price is good for all the work, too... about 2400 $L.

These gigantic behemoths are not for the lesser of heart (or lesser of computers --- if you have a slow computer, the ancient ones are not for you). If you are looking for something to sit around in and people watch, though (and be seen from two sims away if you have draw distance maxxed), this is your dragon.

In my opinion, their hud can only be described as a work of art. You drop new textures into its inventory and can then use those to style almost any part of the dragon. It already comes with a lot of options; the fact that the hud is so easy to use after adding your own is what I enjoy the most.

There are two types of breath weapons (fire and ice); click and fire a ball, hold and breathe a stream. They also come with a biped version (standard avatar size) of the same dragon, which is just as easily customizable as the quad version.

RATING: 5 Hoards out of 5. The only downer is that if you don't have a high-powered computer and you get an Ancient, your computer will scream, cry and melt (and probably make other low powered computers cry, as well).

So there you have it, a look at just a few dragon makers of SL.

Xymbers Slade