I've heard of the legend but I never thought I'll see it with my own eyes.
I saw this swimming in the waters of Scotland Highlands in Second Life. I wanted to take a snapshot of it with my avatar, Kabalyero Kidd, but it swam down and away from me. :(
One of the many things I really like about Second Life is the ability to create your own content. An example would be this Zombie Skin worn by a fighter in RPG Empire. In Second Life, you improve the look of your avatar or character with attachments but attachments can cause client lag when fighting so fighting with little or no attachment is prefered.
I'm not sure about the effects of clothing textures on lag but I guess it would be minimal. Then again, why wear any clothes when you can have just a skin. Clothes are baked on top of the skin so having just a skin would be faster I guess.
They're practically nude out there. LOL! Besides, the zombie skin or undead skin has another effect. It kinda distracts your opponent. I haven't checked yet but I think my avatar, Kabalyero Kidd, was given a fighting skin too. I haven't really checked since I don't fight anymore. I kinda enjoy fishing more than fighting!
Feudal Nippon is a new RP/Combat sim owned by Ronin McGinnis. As the name implies, Feudal Nippon is a Japanese themed sim and, since it's Japanese themed, it is expected that those who wish to RP in Feudal Nippon to also be in Japanese costumes.
My landing to Feudal Nippon wasn't very pleasant because I kinda landed on a property which is protected by a Land Protection gadget. 10 seconds later I was ejected off the land. Ouch!
I don't really have a landmark to Feudal Nippon. What I did to find it was, I searched for Temporal Rifts Empire which is another sim owned by Ronin McGinnis and to my luck, Feudal Nippon is connected to Temporal Rifts Empire. So, I just like clicked somewhere on it, hit the teleport button and I was there.
The Landing Area
Feudal Nippon's landing area is inside a small shack near the docks. There you'll find free items like katanas and kimonos, a group invite gadget for easy group joinin, the rules and regulation which you must read before proceeding and a map of the place.
As you can see, I'm not wearing a Japanese costume, I was in my Urban Warrior kinda outfit that day (which cost me a lot of linden dollars by the way, LOL) but I do have a big OOC sign floating above my head (OOC, Out Of Character). I was hoping that it was enough to show anyone who could be there that I'm not RPing (Roleplaying) but just visiting.
Near the landing area is the dock and there you'll find a 7Seas Fishing Game setup. 7Seas Fishing Game is a good way of attracting new people to your place and also helps in increasing your land's traffic. It's like camping with a different twist!
It seems that mikeD Streeter has been working hard on Dark Century’s second sim, Dark Century II. This time, he totally re-designed the place and turned it into something that is not so dark. The description I got was that it’s a fairytale land for residential purposes but I think it needs a little more color before it can be really called a fairytale land.
Here I am standing at the newly re-built Dark Century II
The mountain where the castle was located is gone together with the castle. The place is now a valley with waterfalls, ponds and flowing lava from a volcano. Flowing lava? LOL! Yeah, flowing lava.
I found out about the change from Jackie Balbozar. She insisted that I visit the place and because of my curiousity, I did. She sent over a landmark and I think it was placed way up in the sky because when I landed I kinda dropped a few meters down.
One or maybe two avatars were there and a few minutes later the owner, mikeD Streeter, appeared as a gas cloud but only for a second. I believe he was showing the place to someone because I saw him with another avatar hovering way up in the sky. Me? I just stayed where I landed because it’s a residential sim and that means the place is more likely to be private. [READ MORE]
The practice of illegally copying or cloning objects in Second Life, as least for me, is a very big issue that should be taken seriously but there are merchants and creators specially in SLExchange who does not believe or do they care about this issue. In one thread, a creator and a merchant posted her case on content theft. She found one of her creations copied prim-per-prim and texture-per-texture and that can only be done by using a third party program. Fortunately, a DMCA complaint was filed with Linden Labs and it looked like the original creator won but what pissed me off is the fact that many argued that it isn’t possible and that CopyBot no longer exist.
An object owned by Korena Starbrook was copied and was being distributed for FREE! :(
Okay, there might not be anymore CopyBot programs out there but you don’t need a program named CopyBot to copy objects in Second Life. All you need is LibSecondLife’s Test Client and you can get that by downloading and installing LibSecondLife. LibSecondLife is the heart of almost all text based Second Life viewers out there which are commonly known as SL Bots.
Now, most of these bots omitted the ability to copy objects but not the Test Client. The Test Client has it all. With it, you can copy textures and objects regardless of permission. The only thing it can’t copy are scripts and animations. So, if you are planning to start a Second Life Business then I suggest you start with scripting and animation specially if you are paranoid about content theft. [READ MORE]
It seems that RPG Empire decided to make the Empire of France sim into a Roleplay/Combat sim again. You see, a few weeks before, the Empire of France sim was changed into an open kind of sim that does not involve RP nor Combat. This happened when the people who were assigned to it left RPG Empire. Fortunately, the Empire of France sim is back and it is once again a Roleplay and Combat sim.
The new queen of the Empire of France is none other than mikeD Streeter’s partner, Sandralee Streeter. Together with a few other people, they are now in the process of rebuilding the Empire of France.
Roleplayers Wanted
With the Empire of France sim being rebuit to accomodate Roleplay and Combat, what’s missing now are roleplayers. Those who wish to roleplay as french men and women are welcome to join the Empire of France. I’m sure positions of power would be available to those who will become active roleplayers in the empire.
When JohnnyNite Darkstone vacated the position of Emperor of The Roman Empire region, he was immediately replaced by aaminah Shikami and she was coronated Empress of The Roman Empire region last August 20, 2008.
I went to the coronation to capture some snapshots but, because of the amount of people who attended the event, the sim lagged like it never lagged before. LOL!
The objects and people around me took a lot of time to rez. The event was practically over when everything finally rezzed for me.
The coronation was followed by a tournament and since I can’t take any snapshots I decided to join the tournament instead. Participants were instructed to go to Sparta and wait in the Arena until it’s time for them to fight which everyone did. While I was waiting there, someone started to mock my outfit which everyone there thought was funny. It was very rude and very disrectful.
Dark Century made some changes to their Arena and the most noticeable one is its color. Before, the textures of the wooden boards used on the platform were dark colored but now it has a much lighter color which kinda gave the Arena some life. Life? Ain’t this supposed to be Dark Century? Anyway, I like it because now I can see where I’m walking! LOL!
Another improvement added to the Arena was a controller that automatically raises and lowers the cage and the platform on command. The Count of Dark Century, Drathian Magne, said he scripted it himself.
I didn’t go to Dark Century just to look at the Arena. I went there to watch their Second Tournament but, unfortunately, only a handful of people and participants showed up! Some of the people I can remember that were there are Lydia Hoisan, JediMa Katscher, Leone Seetan and the Count and Countess of Dark Century.
Lydia Hoisan was wearing a really nice outfit. Too bad JediMa killed her so easily!
I received a message from mikeD Streeter informing me about the closure of two RPG Empire sims, Scotland Highlands and Ireland RP. He didn’t give me the reasons for the closure of the two sims but in an Open Letter sent to everyone as a Group Notice, he explained why the two sims were closed.
Scotland and Ireland Closed
After reading the letter, I can understand why they were closed but I guess for some the decision won’t be that easy to understand. The points mentioned in the Open Letter are:
* sims within RPG Empire should have good RP between each other
* tiers were not renewed
As part of RPG Empire, a sim under it must have good relations and RP between the other sims within the empire because it does not make any sense to be part of it and not have any relations or interaction with the other sims. Sims within the empire should work together to achieve common goals. This will ensure the success and growth of everyone within the empire. If one decides to take a different path and pursue a different goal then it will just hinder the efforts and growth of the other sims. For example, DCS2 is RPG Empire’s chosen combat system and if one sim will not use it then how can you have good RP based combat between each other?
It’s like this, you chose to be part of a group and as a member of that group you are then expected to follow the rules and guidelines of the group and work together with the other members of the group to achieve its goal. That’s what being part of a group means.
Bots in Second Life are third party programs used to access the server to perform and automate various tasks like camping, group joining, greeting and even copying/cloning. They are based on LibSecondLife’s code, which is Open Source, and are very lightweight since they’re text only. Unlike, those bots found in mmorpgs and other online games, bots in Second Life are allowed by Linden Labs.
Bots have many useful uses but they also have some not so good use like copying other people’s objects and textures. In this post I will list all the Second Life Bots that I know and provide a little info about them.
LibSecondLife’s Test Client (Free)
LibSecondLife’s Test Client is your most basic form of Second Life Bot. It runs in DOS mode and commands are either entered in the console or issued by an assigned Master. You can get a working copy of this program by downloading LibSecondLife’s binary.
LibSecondLife’s Test Client is not very user friendly since you’ll be running it in DOS mode but it does have all the commands at your disposal. It is also very lightweight and uses very little CPU process and memory. You can also log in multiple accounts with only one instance of the program.
LibSecondLife’s Test Client is not all that good because it can be used to copy other people’s objects and textures regardless of permission with its export/import and clone commands.
SLeek (Free)
SLeek is a Second Life text only viewer developed by Delta and it’s a lightweight Second Life client. It is very user friendly because it has a windowed interface (no DOS consoles with SLeek). You can also log in multiple accounts by opening new windows from the main window.
SLeek is very easy to use and the interface is very simple to master. You don’t need to have a Master avatar to control your bot. Everything can be done from the interface.
SLeek is great for camping and chatting and because its window is text only, it doesn’t use too much memory or CPU process. It also can’t be used for stealing or copying other people’s hardwork.