Thursday, December 11, 2014

Safari In Wonderland

Wizard.Gynoid @hypergrid.org:8002: this is starting to look obscene

Clustersled!
 Not one Wonderland. Three. On three different grids. Because this is OpenSim, not merely SL. We saw Alice, rode dragons, made new friends, honed our ability to grid jump, and thoroughly came to terms with the instability - and beauty - of hypergridding. 
Cherry Manga's new Alice build on Francogrid
First up, a Winter Wonderland, Canadian style. L'Hiver du Grand Nord is on Dabici Straulino's VAR region full of snow and fun, and oh boy did we take advantage. Kelso Uxlay and Dabici herself were on hand to welcome us when we arrived, via a gate she supplied, although the Safari Landmark seemed to work OK for most. The HG Addresses are at the bottom of this post, and of course, the LMs and explanatory Notecard (not reading the NC can make your life more difficult) are still available on both the Metro and Francogrid bases, and in Group Notices on Craft, Francogrid, and Metropolis. 
L'Hiver makes you shiver
Creanovale is the biggest little grid, and has a gallic smart ass bot called Jean-Givre on hand to keep you company if you go over there by yourself. If you're into festive stuff, there loads of decorations in the winter market. James ATLOUD found what he described as an HG Wells lost underground vessel (an excellent excuse for another visit) but that's not why we came. 


Tobogganing on a Bullet sim. Now that's fun. Cluster tobogganing may look obscene to Wizard, but it's a blast! Well, until you crash.
Rezzing on ice!

DS Tobogan Mesh-T-04: snowbody.Cortes @hypergrid.org riding toboggan!
Nara.Nook: Oh this is cool!  love having a driver
snowbody.Cortes: I'm a crazy driver
Kelso.Uxlay: I never though it could be multi sit.
Nara.Nook: what is yeehaw in Italian?
Jessica.Pixel: WHEEE
Jessica.Pixel: I'm sitting on Wizzy's lap lol
         The teleporting within Var regions turned out to be challenging. Ending up at the bottom of the bay without your bits was par for the course, as Truelie Telling found out more than once! That might have been because there were 15 of us though. Some couldn't make the jump at all; going to your home world and trying again will often help with that, it seems. Although it's all voodoo. 
Ferd shows us how it's done
           Next up, a preview of the new Ferd Fredrix' Quest, Elves and Dragons. Ferd and Debbie's grid is called Outworldz, and it's challenging to get there. Not German Grid challenging, but almost. Two different landmarks, personal TP's and the URI got most people there but a few experienced the bug that takes you to a 404 web page when you click Accept on Teleport Offer. 
Stuck at the Safari clubhouse on Francogrid? Check out the freebies including Jessica's new opensim tanktop!

          Here's a piece of bizarreness; there were three people stuck on Francogrid. The Map address wouldn't work for them, nor would the LMs from the dispenser. When I passed them a 'fresh' yet identical version of the  main LM, two of the three were immediately able to jump. 
          Later, Scottius Polke joined us, he couldn't jump from Francogrid, couldn't jump from the *Startregion* of his home grid of Metropolis, even after relogging... then from a nearby sandbox on Metropolis, poof, the Landmark worked. 
Outworldz Welcome Hub. That's a small door!

          Worth all the hard work? Yes. Not just because the Phaze team have made an outstanding build yet again, but because... grid jumping is a bit like a new cell phone. You have to tough through the ineptitude/enemy interface bit, then it gets easier and you can stop looking for a phone booth.  If you HG Jump enough it becomes easier. I swear. What does that easiness mean? That you can, with confidence, go to new places without having to find a tp gate. That you reach out and spark new alliances and inspiration, and gain perspective about your own builds and the world in general. That you find ways in which you can make the community stronger. That you're no longer tied to gates, that you don't get caught in the same-old same-old. That you take a leap. 
When the game's fully up and running, you'll be able to customize your dragon with a million permutations

          Speaking of leaps, a dragon wonderland! This quest is all about - will be all about, it's not finished yet - having your own personal, personalized, dragon. After years of volunteering and creating and giving in SL, Ferd Fredrix has finally closed his sim there, to focus 100% on his work in open sim. This is not the only quest you can visit on Outworldz, but it is perhaps the most ambitious so far, with two tribes of NPC's (so much great mesh by Debbie Edwards!), a village, a castle, tunnels, lava and - of course - a lot of pesky sheep.

Ferd's heavy Book of Magic may be affecting his posture
           Here is a game people will be able to come back to again and again,  honing their dragon skills, and just delighting in the gorgeous landscape. Not a lot of it was visible in this viewer during the Safari, and many people reported being frozen, but it's such a beautiful build that even if you could only cam a bit, that gave a general idea of its greatness. And our Safaris are more about discovering places to return to, rather than having the full experience of each region on your first visit.
Check mate. Like this build? Show your appreciation by making something free for OpenSim!

          Last up the Wonderland par excellence, another preview but oh what a sight, Cherry Manga's new Alice in Wonderland. It's is her way of paying back to the community, and in particular, to her sim provider, gill beaumont. Francogrid is a not-for-profit grid, and if ever there was an example of how virtual worlds can escape the boring confines of mere money exchanges,  this is it. 
gill beaumont: mon cadeau de cherry....
gill beaumont: c'est magnifique pour moi... 
gill beaumont: desolĂ© pour le lag, faut optimiser la regions.. mais ce soir c est un bon test niveau server 
gill beaumont: merci a vous!
Visitors from four different grids: Dabici, Serene, Patti and Jessica take in the sights




















Serene.Jewell: It's so pretty at this spot.
Thirza Ember: this is just a preview
PatriciaAnne.Daviau: it is awesome so far!!
Serene.Jewell: I love it.
Dabici.Straulino: it so beautiful, well crafted and imaginative

Fuschia.Nightfire: don't eat the cake, james had his feet in it
PatriciaAnne.Daviau: ewhewww gross
James.Atlloud: very cooling after all the walking
Fuschia.Nightfire: this is usually the time of evening when Thirza dances on the table
       Not this time. It was all Fuschia, in the lingerie costume that wouldn't cooperate for the Hedonism party last week. Pretty in pink... and what a dance!
This week's URI collection:
L'Hiver du Grand Nord     hg.creanovale.ca:8052:CREA
Elves and Dragons           outworldz.com:9000:Phaze-Dragons
Alice in Wonderland        hg.francogrid.org:80:aliceinwonderland

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