My Three SL Wishes Meme

I'm a little late in the game, but here goes... It's not like I found a magic lamp in the sand, but I do have wishes for SL. Ofcourse there's the usual suspects like more stability, easier sim border crossings and less lag. Everybody wants that. Then there's the wishes of Strawberry Singh. Better reputation for SL, more building talent and, - oh the stability-thing. I can so relate to those wishes.

Thinking hard

Still, there's other things and other angles... Lets start with building...

1) Easier building. 

I know Strawberry wished for more building talent. I'd turn that upside down. I think building should be easier. Think about Minecraft for a minute! It's dead easy to build in there. Perfection is not within reach, because everything is build from cubes; Mountains, clouds, trees; Even the Avatars look "cubistic". The entire world has an appearance kinda like a lego world on steroids. There will never be sailing there, because there's no wind, no way to make several cubes act like an item,  - and there's no scripting language either. The building process, however, it is extremely simple. After five minutes in creative mode I had a house with doors, windows, roof and a terrace overlooking the lake. It all looked like lego, so I won't be staying in Minecraft, but... I hate that I need to go outside SL to build. Make the tools better, and put them inside SL. 

2) Better physics.

This one is probably impossible. It relates to sailing. Make the water, the waves, the wind, the physics of moving though - or on - water better. Advanced physics would probably be a selling point, because SL would be a much better gaming ending, - and a much better engine for flight, sailing and driving simulators. What if SL had waves? What if moving stuff through the water caused ripples? What if the wind caused ripples on the ocean surface? It doesn't have to be all about mesh clothing for teenagers does it?

3) Lower tier.

Everyone talks about that. Lower tier would be nice. Talk about product loyalty. What's keeping ppl in SL? The sailing, the people, the parties... lotsa stuff actually. However, if we all had a bit of land, an island or just a piece of dirt in the dessert with our stuff on, - wouldn't that be the single best creator of loyalty? I'd wanna build and rebuild a marina a million times. Hold parties. Test new stuff. Sadly the tier is way to high for that; Much higher than with any budget cloud host. SL must make money, but maybe it could be done differently. How about lowering the tier to get ppl to build houses and stay in the game. Then maybe put a VAT on the markeplace instead. This would boost ppls ability to build their own stuff and put it on the market, and who cares if they take say 10% of each sale? I mean, they are providing the system, are they not?

Hmm... What else?? Better boats ofcourse, but that's entirely up to us; The ppl of SL. Maybe put it on my iPad??

A record broken

Here's a little update on the RL sailing, which is just beginning up here in the cold Scandinavia. It's been a record breaking long winter with loads of snow and frost throughout march and april. Usually the sailing season starts mid april at the latest. This year it was different. This first little photo-mix is from the very last days of april.

Winter still

Hundreds and hundreds of boats on land; Most boat owners haven't even thought about starting the yearly wax on wax off sessions; Even on a cloudy sunday, the marina is completely silent; Like a video on hold. No action at all. No humming from sanders; No trucks moving boats around. Nothing. Only a few landlubbers queuing up at the icecream shoppe. How strange to wander around these sleeping boats...

Summer soon

It's like ten days ago, when everything was in total hibernation. By now we've had a couple of good races; The wind is no more than 12 degrees. The water is around 4. Celsius that is. That's 54 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit. No bikinis. Call me crazy, but still... it was worth the wait. So why haven't I been virtual sailing as much as I usually do? Been sneaking around and, - well that's another story...

SL never sleeps

One of the fun things about SL is that time never stops. Some games stop, while you're AFK; Others stop completely the minute you press ESC and click quit. That goes for most sailing simulators too. This one is very different, so one month of AFK and all kinds of interesting stuff has happened.

Not just a zodiac

On rare occasions stuff disappears; I still remember that beautiful little island called Tranquility Island. Not really a sailing area; More of a relaxation area... well, there was a rowboat, but other than that it was butterflies, waterfalls, flowers and tall trees. All spiced up with a raft, a swing, fireworks, treehuts, fishing, and a treasure hunt... However, on most occasions there's been new and wonderfull stuff created.

Speeding

This time was no exception, and I am sailing one of the new things here with Ana. The really cool thing about this zodiac wasn't quite finished at the time. It was operational, but I promised not to tell, so I won't; It's probably been released by now, but a promise is a promise. One of these days I'll have to login and try it again. But right now, - wooohoooo... the snow is gone in RL, and the sailing season is just about to begin... It's time to tack hard and eat hard tacks; Ocean sprayed.

Tallship on display

I've seen quite a few virtual classic tallships a la Pirates of the Caribbean. They usually suffer from the technical limitations of the virtual world. Putting so many details into a moving, sailable object is simply not possible. This one is a bit different.

Ahab and me talking about spring and blizzards

There are at least three differences. It can't sail. At least not yet. It's quite detailed, while still being work in progress. It is more of a modern ship than the typical romantic pirate ship. It looks like a somewhat modernized tallship with an iron hull and wooden decks. Technically speaking it's a Barque.

Through the window

Details, details, details... here's a picture taken through the window of the boatshop at Tradewinds. You can hardly see it, but the hull is definately not made of oak like those oldtimers we used to have, back when my country was a superpower at sea. Crazy thought btw.

Obviously a modern ship

What you can see is that there are no canons. This next shot here shows the deck house and low parts of the mast. Lots of details, and obviously it is a modern ship. Those round things in the windows, "wipers", dunno what they're called. Does anyone know? Anyway, they clearly need electrical power to function.

Interior

The interior wasn't quite finished, but here's a glimpse of it. There's a lot of tricks applied in virtual boat building. This one works quite well; Until you try to walk through the door. It's sort of a bonk-auch- wtf-experience.

Size is big

There's room enough though. The size of this thing is... It's not like the aircraft carrier, but it is comparable to this oiler. The word is BIG, and I wonder if it will ever sail. Perhaps it will be able to sail by engine, but by sail? I seriously doubt it. Hope to be surprised though.

It's tallship day at Tradewinds

Here's another shot that indicates the size. In the back left side there's a tiny Nacra sitting in the sand. Back center the Tradewinds lighthouse sticks out. Back right side there's - lo and behold - another tallship heading north it seems. I have no idea what kind of sandspeeder is hovering beside the tallship in the back, but that's the virtual world. You never know what you're gonna get.

Full view

Here's a full view picture of the ship in all it's glory. It is - of course - built by master builders over at Kiku Craft. Check the details on the Kiku site here. It appears as if Kiku Craft expect this to sail eventually. Whoa! Talk about a liveaboard. Better keep an eye on this one.

PS: You can catch a glimpse of a true classic, wooden tallship over at Timo's. Oh, and I also posted a few pics of them when I sailed the Nautilus submarine.

Back to virtual sailing

Coming up: Loads of snow these next five days. First life is gonna be a true wintery landscape. Almost Christmas-like if you like! Less dark but still. Where can I catch a few sunrays then?

That relaxing sound inside a moored boat

That's right. The virtual sun is always shining. Yeah! But... it's not the real thing. There's really no vitamins there. Even if I max out the brightness there's no vitamins, no tan.

Virtual sunshine is better than no sunshine

Still, the virtual sun is - somehow - able to trick the mind into - hmm - that summery mood. A mood I so miss this time of year. Especially when the weatherboy talks about a blizzard.

Virtual island life

That's when that virtual island life becomes so very interesting. Blue water all the way from where ever to the horizon and beyond. Thousands of little islands and blue lagoons to explore.

Is that a surfboard back there? 

Marinas, boatyards, lighthouses, surfboards, sandy beaches... so much summer. It's all over the place. Well, except those sims where the owner chooses to have snow. Let's avoid those...

Let it snow...

Not too long ago I met Ahab at Tradewinds. We talked about 1st and 2nd life, and we agreed that - woohoo - soon it will be summer; More real sailing and less virtual sailing. Alas, yesterday morning I woke up to this:

Spring is here. NOT!

I posted a few more wintery shots on my tumblr. Don't go there. It'll only make you depressed. I guess I'll have to prolong my stay in SL this season. So, do I hate snow? Not at all. I love skiing. 1st life skiing that is. It is just that... it's really time for some 1st life sailing before we forget how to, right? Talk to you soon, Ahab :-D

Cruising around Fastnet

I haven't had much time for virtual sailing lately, so here's a couple of shots from a wonderful cruise in the virtual Laser. The pics were taken before the windvane, but obviously the boat was perfectly sailable.

Reaching past Fastnet Rock

There's a lotta places to go if you're just looking for a relaxed cruise; Palms and sandy beaches are easily found. However, the Sharp-Tooth-Isle is such a majestic build; Can't help it;

Reaching into the sunset

This is one of those things that would actually be fun to transmorph from the virtual world to the real world. A sunset-ride around the Fastnet Rock in a Laser, right?

Fumbling with the camera

One of those few things. Mostly, we wanna take things from RL and make them virtual. The photos for instance... Why can I not have one of those neat little cameras on my virtual boat taking a pic every 30 seconds? There's definately a market for virtual accessories.

Luffing time

Time to change course or we will reach inhabited aeas on the other side of the Blake. Left Dutch there hanging in the exhaust. Yes, the Laser will come with shadowing, and wooohooo that makes it so much more interesting for racing.

Changing course

Fine graphics, smooth sailing, shadowing and windvane is probably enough to make this a smash hit. Still, there's a few things missing. I am crossing my fingers. You never know... Dutch seems to love surprises almost as much as I do.

Going home

Whatever will happen, this lil post here shows how lovely the Laser is for cruising. At least I hope so. Oh  and remember: There's actually just room for a passenger. Just in case you wanna hold hands while you watch the virtual sunset. Whichever the case, chill out and have a great weekend, - or get a virtual Laser and have an even greater weekend.