Random Things… November 18, 2008

More shots from the underwater realm at Chikepe. Pictured below are 2 coral arches that I missed before, lined up with each other to the south of the main ruins.

A night shot of the Edwardston Station Gallery skybox from the western edge of the Rubi forest.

Several times in the last week or so I’ve found myself pulled back to the old Azure Islands haunts. This would be the main Azure Island… just popping around and seeing what’s changed since I lived there. Seems so long ago, but it’s only been a bit over 3 months since I left. But I have a feeling I can never return. Besides the neighborhood looks so deserted even in comparison to when I moved there in April. Very sad.

Below is a snapshot of some of the desolated landscape you find on the main Azure Island now, where before you found houses and pleasant domestic living. Granted that a wasteland has its own type of aesthetic I can dig, but it comes to a point where you have to ask yourself: what do you want to get out of your SL experience? Do you want to live in a well over half deserted island with zoning restrictions added on top, or do you want to move to the mess that is the mainlands which, however, offers little zoning restrictions outside of some common courtesy rules (some of which I’ve probably violated at this point)? Once I found the Rubi properties, I knew I had to make the leap from off-mainland to mainland, and *probably* for good. But I got a whole lot out of my Azure Island experience — it really is an ideal place to live in SL if you just want to *live* and not do anything else. I see now that I had to choose the galleries and temple over living in relative peace and isolation, though.

I still miss it.

Although probably close to half of the properties on the main Azure Island are up for sale, there are still some pleasant domestic spots, such as this walled field of flowers in Gacrux.

Moving back to the mainlands and Bay City in particular now, there’s this whole Mole mythology that I missed upon my brief explorations of Bay City prior to last week, obviously tied into such things as these Mole Ruins on the western edge of Falconmoon…

… and this statue of what’s called “Sir Mole”, also in Falconmoon.

So I’ve decided to make it a point to explore the Bay City area in a thorough manner sometime quite soon, much like Baker Bloch did at Nautilus Island/City. Bay City’s not quite as large as that area, and admittedly I’m not as attracted to strict urban areas. But I’ll give it a shot. Bay City really is a nicely crafted region, although the property prices are *way* out of my league (just as they are now in Nautilus).

Moving on… I found another “Arab” type vessel underwater on the Sansara continent. I can’t remember which sim now, unfortunately. But this one guarded by flesh eating piranas so Baker Bloch (after getting part of his leg gnawed into!) decides that further exploration would not be prudent.

I also find myself being drawn back to the Nautilus Island region, and I promise an update of online resources pertaining to that island in the near future as well. Here Baker Bloch explores some of the northernmost of the new sims, all 100% water sims. What I may do is focus more on the underwater regions around the Nautilus island in any new, personal updates. I also want to report more on some of the interal water sims of the Nautilus continent north of the new regions, places that I was exploring just before the sudden appearance of the island to the south.

Baker Bloch briefly revisits the island itself, then, sitting on this forested northeast corner and taking in the nightime vista over the new sea.

Baker Bloch can resist teleporting into a couple of other places on the island, including this lounging area just north of the mile long canal cutting into the island from the west. But he didn’t stay long.

I have a feeling there’s much more to be found in and around that island.

I’ve also worked some on the gallery, adding this interesting mural obviously based on Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. That’s Ozma’s brother Ozmo filling in for the main player.
🙂

More Underwater Ruins November 15, 2008

While exploring the general region of the new-ish Bay City area, ran across more underwater ruins, quite similar to the sets one can find around the new Nautilus Island. Thought I’d drop some photos of the finds in this post here. I may have more to comment about this later, but basically I think the Lindens just wanted to add some pizzazz to the watery areas of Bay City, as they did with the Nautilus Island environs. We’ll see what develops, though. The ruins in the Bay City region seem to be confined to one sim so far: Chikepe. There is also some underwater vegetation to be found in the sim called Manyiminya directly to the west of Chikepe.

Go see for yourself!