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

Steam4: The Grid-wide Steampunk Hunt

The 4^th Steampunk hunt is going on now through March 31. The Hunt begins at Mieville Doyle Victorian Steampunk located at Mieville Doyle (84, 77, 23).

The Hunt started with a pre-hunt party on the night of February 28. I missed the party but came in world about two hours before the Hunt began. The excitement and anticipation in the Group chat was unmistakable as experienced hunters talked about the great prizes and fun of past Steampunk hunts. Well before midnight some hunters were roaming around Mieville, hoping it would open early. I was too sleepy to stay, but I returned the next day. And the day after that. In fact, I’ve been doing a little hunting almost every day since Steam4 started.

There are over 190 merchants participating in the grid-wide event and countless hunters. I chatted with one, resident Nagash Demina, at The Naughty Victorian. Like myself and many others, Nagash was hunting in Steampunk attire. Although I usually avoid creatures with eight legs, I found Nagash to be a friendly and experienced Steampunk Hunter. “It's getting larger and larger every year,” Nagash said about Steam4, “and that's a good thing. The few times I've gotten stuck, the group is always helpful.”

For those of you new to hunts, the Steam4 event is a good one to learn on. At the beginning site, join the group for free. Wear the necklace and arm band, which will help in finding the small gear that marks the prize. The first shop’s landmark will be given out there, too. When you find a prize, it will also include a landmark to the next shop. You can go through the shops in that order or you can find a list of all the participating shops at the webpage, http://steamthehunt.blogspot.com.

The list is also helpful if you can’t find the gear in a store. You can skip on to a different store and come back later to find the stubborn one. Alternatively, you can ask someone in the chat for a hint or a TP to their location and pick up the hunt from there. Circling back is a technique I like to use in Hunts.

The prizes are all high quality and exclusive to the Hunt. I’ve found great items, including a plane, a Steampunk Hat from Destiny Designs, and a Steampunk Victorian lamp from Alkahest that I placed on my dock. Their web page shows a preview of some of the prizes, which include jewelry, boots, an observatory, and furniture.

Grey Lupindo

5th Avenue Fashion at Wetherby’s

Every day I look forward to a visit to 5th Avenue. It is a delightful sim with numerous stores to visit . Of course my favorite place is Wetherby’s . The clothing stock in this store will keep you outfitted for an entire year! There are gowns , baby doll outfits , slim dresses in all lengths, short skirt outfits and business clothing. Most have shoes to match in several styles and jewelry created to go with each outfit. The prices are marvelous when you compare them to other designers and the owner, Mrs. Wetherby, is constantly searching for textures that will enrich the dresses.

I will tell you a secret. To each member of the Wetherby group she gives a free outfit every day ! She also places shoes and jewelry at a ridiculous price of about 20L to match. Not only that, contrary to most creators she loves us to pick up a second free outfit that day to pass along to someone as a gift. She dotes on her “lovelies, my dears“ as she calls us and is always ready to help with any problem. If she is not around there is usually a staff member who can assist. There are three floors of outfits. The third floor is a sale room where the prices are marked down from the already low original price. She did not forget the men and has some great shirts and ties and other outfits on the second floor where you will also find a lingerie section. If you know someone who needs it there is a maternity shop too. See why I love it?? Visit and join the group.

Before you leave take a walk around the sim to see the other shops with wonderful offerings and MM boards , and perhaps you will find a freebie here and there and many Midnight Mania boards to slap. To get there take this ride: http://slurl.com/secondlife/5th%20Avenue/124/201/23

Gemma Cleanslate

Fear Lurks Redzone Menace

Once upon a time, a man invented a Toilet HUD. Flush! Gulp! LOL And invented the so-called "EVIL" - "DIABOLICAL" and EXTREMELY OVER-RATED SL security device RedZone.

How did this man succeed in pissing off most everyone in Second Life?... his RedZone customers? ROTF LMAO... privacy activists? Linden Labs? and even ordinary SL citizens?

Here's how: RedZone (RZ) is a crappy product... overpriced... and WAY OVER-SOLD.... RZ pretends to be a revolutionary SL land security system, that claims to detect so-called Alternative Avatars (Alts).

It doesn't really. It's a kluge. By deliberately invading people's privacy, RedZone supposedly collects Internet addresses from SL viewers via music and media connections. But due to network address translation, that Internet address could be shared by a million ISP customers! DUH! Not Alts dummy... same ISP!!! Hello AOL! You got mail! lol

Not only that, Toilet HUD genius pulled his marketing right out of Saddam Hussein's playbook... claiming to be dangerous.... wildly fabricating sales figures... pretending to have sold over 20,000 RZs... 6000 in fact on a day when nobody shopped at his store! Except a happy camper on Deluxe Toilet (comes with free HUD) lol... See http://no2redzone.wordpress.com/

And we are led to believe that Toilet HUD guy has collected 5 million Internet addresses! OMG! I didn't know AOL had that many! lol

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Scylla Rhiadra for her thoroughly researched exposes on RedZone.

To protect ourselves, disable your SL media and music streams (Ctrl P Audio&Video tab), and wear this HUD called GreenZone. Buy for free. See "How to Play SL Music Outside SL" below.

In Picture 2, you see GreenZone doing it's job: ALARM! Means RZ haunts this dreadful place. I got RZ alarms at Bad Girls, RAWR store, and the RP sim Radiant Gardens. Places we should all avoid like the plague. I can imagine if your SL business is an a**hole magnet, and your customers are SL a**holes, you might feel a need for a hoax like RZ. You deserve each other! Enjoy! lol

I went to two dozen popular places in SL, music clubs, stores, lots of places... Guess what? No RedZone!!! Any place that uses RZ sucks! Hands down! Boycott their businesses! Join the SL group Green Zone Users for more info.

BUT DUDE! RZ is a bummer! What you really need is THRONE! YEAH! Picture 3 shows Lord Ivan the Terrible THRONE! YEAH! It's like Toilet HUD Revenge! You ride on the backs of Philip Linden slaves and go round vaporizing and ejecting mere mortals! Bwuwahahahah!

Throne and other disgusting inventions of an infantile mind... Ring of Burning Death, Very Paranoid Bug Detector, and our favorite "As Seen On TV" product, the Deluxe Toilet HUD (Picture 1). Lure in unsuspecting SL campers with offers of money... then make rude noises and orbit their butts! Dude! We could have fun ALL day long! NOT!

This article is satire. Orbiting and ejecting are extremely violent acts. Fine for video games if you please. But SL is not a game. Bada bing. Read: SecondLife is Not a Game!»

Also, help fight RedZone and other privacy invading products by voting for this JIRA: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746?

HOW TO PLAY SL MUSIC OUTSIDE SL

LISTEN on iTUNES, REAL-PLAYER, Windows-Media-Player, or WINAMP - SL music programs are based upon Internet streams...

In Viewer 2, (a) Ctrl-Alt-D to open Advanced Menu, (b) If you are in Viewer 2.4 or later... Advanced > Show Debug Options, then in the box type adminmenu, set the radio button to True and OK (c) Advanced > Show Develop Menu and (d) Develop > Show Admin Menu. Then do World > Place Profile > About Land... Select-Copy the music URL off the Sound Tab... and paste it into your favorite media player (outside SL on your PC).

In Viewer 1 (or Phoenix & 3rd Party Viewers), click on the Region Name in the menubar (top of client)... Media tab... sometimes you will see Music URL there... IF NOT, Ctrl-Alt-D to open Advanced/Admin menus, then Advanced Menu > View Admin Options (or Ctrl Alt V), now click on the region name (top menu bar) then go to Audio (or old Media) Tab. Select and copy the "Music URL".

Paste the Music URL into you PC media player. Shortcut Ctrl U for iTunes and Real Player (CMD U on Mac)... then click in the text box and Ctrl V to paste (CMD V on Mac).

P.S. This video is impossibly funny sendup of RedZone... Ummm LOTS OF F WORDS... Caution! If you want a great laugh you have to watch it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqW0A0PLhQ0

(Originally posted on CNN)

Any1 Gnoid

JessicaBelle Aeronautic Projects’ Focke-Wulf Fw 190 "Butcher Bird"

JessicaBelle Aeronautic Projects has come on the scene with the release of it’s first warplane, it’s rendition of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, also known as the “Butcher Bird.” Maneuverable, compatible with two combat systems, and with armament of machine guns, bombs, and rockets, it is both an excellent dogfighter and ground-attack aircraft in areal duels and combat RP battles.

From this writer/pilot’s point of view, the JessicaBelle Fw 190 flies easier than the other two brands I’ve flown. The engine scripts are made by Shana Carpool, whom has a record of building popular aircraft. Flight can be performed from either first-person-view/mouselook, or third-person-view from behind. Besides the owner, the plane can also be made to be flyable through someone else through guest mode.

Other controls are as follows:

guest=guestmode

start/stop=starts/stops the plane.

g=raises/lowers the landing gear.

vice on/vice off=activates the vice combat system,allowing guns/rockets/bombs to operate.

tcs on/ tcs off=activates the TCS combat system.

team1-4=chooses your vice team,default will be no team/team 0.

bt=toggles rockets/bombs

b=fires/drops rockets or bombs

left click on the mouse fires the guns once vice is active,also works in mouselook.

w=up
s=down
a=roll left
d=roll right
directional arrows also work.

page up/down=increases/decreases throttle.


The ease of flying the plane makes it ideal for dogfighting for both new and experienced pilots, able to maneuver with ease. For a combat roleplay sim with the VICE system, in which combat can be Air vs Ground vs Sea, the Dayafter Fw 190 makes for a useful addition. It can attack ground and sea targets with either bombs or rockets, the latter being the more popular choice (rockets can also be used against bombers, as real Fw 190s did, but some combat RPs consider them “cheating”).

By all means the plane is good for more than just combat. The same ease of control that makes it so good in a dogfight makes it a great plane for acrobatics, or just casual flying around.

There is also a smaller version of the JessicaBelle Fw190 available for pilots who prefer tiny avatars.

The Real Fw 190:

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (Shrike) was designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s. It was used by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War in a variety of roles. Like the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Fw 190 was employed as a "workhorse", and proved suitable for a wide variety of roles, including air superiority fighter, strike fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and operated with less success as a night fighter.

The Fw 190 was well-liked by its pilots. Some of the Luftwaffe's most successful fighter aces flew the Fw 190, including Otto Kittel with 267 victories, Walter Nowotny with 258 victories and Erich Rudorffer with 222 claimed kills. A great many of their kills were claimed while flying the Fw 190.

The Fw 190 participated on every major combat front where the Luftwaffe operated, and did so with success. Some 28 Fw 190s are in museums or in the hands of private collectors around the world. In 1997, a German company began manufacturing new models.

Build Team:

Scripts/texture: Shana Carpool

Build/sculpt: Selene Spellhunter & Mabon (built the bomb shape)

Plane/flight advisor: Sky Phydeau

Planner/financier: Jessicabelle Dayafter (also did some small things, like the spinner.)

DISCLAIMER: I do not support any hate-filled ideology, nor am I affiliated with any such persons or groups. I'm simply a history buff with an affection for fine aircraft. - JessicaBelle Dayafter

The plane can be found for sale at Vickster’s Flight-Pro Shop in The Channel sim at (145, 45, 3484).

Article by Bixyl Shuftan and JessicaBelle Dayafter (^.^)

Simball

I recently was contacted by Aeonix Aeon, whom had something interesting to show me, something that will be particularly of interest to sports enthusiasts, “Vetox is working on a new sport game, Simball. ... It’s still in beta. It’s like basketball, but on hoverboards and with weapons.”

Aeonix described the area as looking much like a “pinball machine” with the bumpers, with two goals on each end. The larger one, when touched by the opposing hoverboard, provides one point. Over that is a smaller one, partially guarded by a bumper, which is much harder to get to, but if it is tagged rewards the effort with two points.

Joining Aeonix at the viewing platform over the arena, I ran into two Simball developers, or “code monkey ninjas” as Aeonix called them, Sean Martin and KrackManiac Robonaught. “We just started a week ago,” Sean Martin told me, “well, the arena I started.”

The two offered to play a game to demonstrate, and the rest of us watched. After they got on their hoverboards, a timer counted down, and a while ball of energy appeared on the field. Both players went after it, and the one who got it first began glowing, and leaving a trail of light, pursued by the other. The energized player would speed across the floor, going up the opposing wall, and hopefully have enough kinetic energy to rise to the goal. Very seldom was a player able to have enough speed to travel high enough to reach the 2 point goal.

If the hoverboard with the lightball was tagged by the opposing player, the ball would switch to the other board, and the two players would switch offense and defense roles. If the player with the lightball ran into a bumper, he would lose the ball, which would be released again into the arena in a few seconds.

Sean Martin later emailed me additional details, saying the sport should be ready and out of beta in December, with beta events in the meantime soon to be ran by Cyphen Heart, “He will also be presenting the new sport to Treet.TV.” Regular games will have “three people per team but this may raise eventually. The objective is to gain more goals than the other team before the time runs out. (Although for beta we have a set goal of 10 and first to reach this wins.)”

Of the boards, “There are currently 3 boards. Each as a special power and abilities unique to that type of board. These powers work from simulated energy within the board. Shown in a small white meter on back. Each board has a Generator that charges energy over time. In the info below is an indication of how fast these boards generate energy over time, and how fast the boards travel in relation to each other.” The Kinetic board has a lot of energy and can either be fast or energize other boards . The Tesla board is able to freeze other boards with an EMP blast, if it’s battery is full. And the Onyx board may be slower than the others, but is immune to EMP blasts and has a sonic “push” to repel other players.

Sean stated there may be more kinds of boards in the future, and possibly more rules for both “official” games and unofficial ones for fun.

“I started the Vetox Project back in 2005, which has a shop 'Vetox' which is located at VSN and at Andromeda Media Group. I'm the lead design and CEO of the virtual company and manage projects. But I also do graphic design in RL, programming, some animation, and a number of other things. Jack of all trades master of none. However I don't have time to do it all so a dev team is very helpful.

“My dev team is currently: KrackManiac Robonaught: Sculpter / Bake / Beta Tester, and RobsterRawb Jaxxon: Sculpter / Take / Texture / Beta Tester. Also VSN is ran by Cyphien Heart. He's not necessarily on my dev team, however we are business partners that just happen to work together well. He handles most of the PR and stuff I'm not used to. For example he got Treet.TV involved into the FS Simboarding sport. He also organized the community and gave them a place to go.”

The Simball arena is at the Dream Horizon sim, at the Virtual Sports Nexus (VSN)


Bixyl Shuftan

Scripts and Lag

I recently had a talk with EriX Oh of the Skybeam Estates. He wanted to discuss something many residents in Second Life don’t seem to be aware of: script lag.

Most residents are aware of the fact that more prims are around, the more lag there is, as each one takes a little bit of processing time. Scripts, however, also take time. So objects with scripts will create more lag than those without. EriX just shook his head at the mention of builders whom obsess with economizing their creations to have the fewest prims possible, yet stuff them full of redundant scripts.

“Many avatars with huge script-times/script-counts, they always tell me Linden Lab is the problem. I say to them they are the first problem. When I then ask the users to detach something or leave, they get angry. And even when I explain in detail, ... they still do not understand it.”

Of the subject on avatars and lag being written about more after the Avatar Rendering Cost (ARC) became available to view as an option, Erix commented, “That’s what many say, ‘Yes, but my ARC is low.’ That’s wrong. Scripts do not count in the ARC, and the ARC is only to detect local lag, not server lag. I must say my ARC may be high, but I’m not hogging the server (grin).”

As the manager of a sim, Erix had tools to help him see how much lag various objects created, sending me a couple pictures, “what you see here are all ‘ heavy loaded’ scripts .... - as this display is only limited to display ~100 scripts at one time. What you see here are times, how much time scripts need to execute.” By “heavy loaded,” he meant scripts particularly long and full of instructions, “and cause a lot of CPU load. The quantity of scripts does not matter if it lags or not, it’s the quality. What I look for often here ... generally speaking for an av, under 1 ms is okay, under 0.5 ms is perfect. When the sim has many scripts to execute, it all raises the times a bit. So on a full sim, I don’t care when I see avs under 1 ms.”

So when does script lag really begin? “Generally it’s a bit by bit feeling. You can’t say that avs over 1 ms are automatically ‘lagger: out!’ You need to think every av, even scriptless ones, cause CPU load on the sim. All objects with and without scripts cause lag. I look first at the sim itself. Are there many people? In a sandbox for instance, over 20 people around means it’s likely to lag. Who has objects with scripts? They cause lag. What I want to say, an avatar with more than 1 ms, is built wrong.”

Erix informed me that the fox avatar he uses most of the time is a modified copy of the original with redundant scripts removed, “removed over 300 scripts ... I’ll put on my original, and show you how ugly the times will be. You can potentially as one av lag a whole sim.” He then changed into his original av, which did seem a little slow to load. At first, the only difference seemed to be it’s use of invisiprims (EriX replaced them). Then he gave me a couple pictures of his sim statistics, and the difference was more obvious, :3.665 on an *idling* sim! Why that happened, if you look at me closely, you’ll see in *every* prim a script: Foxcolor. I counted them - 328 scripts!” These scripts were solely used for changing the color of his avatar fur. Since it was fully modifiable, after choosing a final color he removed all the scripts, “I also got rid of the original HUD, which I counted around 50 scripts.”

I mentioned some of my avatars had the option to change hair color. Erix answered, “Then they MAY have in every hair a script. May, because LL introduced a command in LSL to change child-prims from the root-prim on. So *one* script can change up to 255 child prims.” I changed to a "furry" skunk avatar with had a number of options which required some scripts, including changing hair color, as well as a radar, male AO, and flight feather. Erix looked at the statistics, “still under me (0.342), you’re 0.257. Nothing to worry about from my view.”

“A huge amount of scripts has other side effects. TPs often fail. And lagging, lagging, lagging. And because there's no quick, easy way to remove these scripts, I made a program, this: http://foxreports.lu/software_slavscrm.php . Note that those who use the program: I'm NOT responsible for ANY damage.”

“So girls, with many hairs, check the script-counts, and remove them if not needed.”

We talked a little more, and soon parted ways, me knowing a little more about scripts and lag, and how a sim administrator saw it.

Bixyl Shuftan