New Kraken Wars Chapter published!

Friday is Kraken Wars Day! Read the 2nd part of Jack Tracker's  epic steampunk story at the official Drow Science Blog.

Introducing: The New Drow Science Blog!

When I started writing my Drow Diary back in 2011, it was purely a personal Blog about my adventures (some call them shenanigans) in Second Life, like my bike-tours, Blake-Sea-flights and some evil adult fun. It all was and still is great fun and brought me loads of positive feedback! 

Over the years though the focus of the Drow Diary shifted more and more towards my activities as builder and shop-owner, while I also kept posting more personal content. To cut the story short here: The content-situation became a bit messy!

The new year is a fine opportunity to clean this mess up a little by creating a new Blog, called Drow Science, exclusively for my steampunk- and building activities. That should make it much easier for visitors to navigate and to find much faster what they are looking for.

Goes without saying that I keep The Drow Diary too. For more personal posts and things which don't really have much to do with Drow Science.

I wish you a fantastic 2016 and see you at the new Drow Science Blog!

The Fun you have when you try to cash-out your L$ from Abroad

Being in Second Life and creating and selling my creations there always have been an enjoyable activity for me. It isn't like you are getting rich with it, but selling items is a nice way to get some positive feedback – simply that people like the things you make and appreciate your efforts.

As of lately though, Linden Labs showed a behaviour that makes me reconsider investing any more time and effort into SL. What did happen?

Since Christmas is coming closer, I wanted to cash-out some of my L$ to my account. Not a terribly large sum – enough to buy some presents and have some pocket-money.

I did the whole procedure a few months ago already, after reading Kat Fetisov's great posts about it. I was kind of prepared for a ton of paperwork to go through all the necessary required procedures, but after I filled in all forms, got my tax-ID and all that legal stuff sorted, the payout worked fine.

This time however, instead of receiving my payment, it seems I have unleashed a landslide of bureaucracy and anti-money-laundering and/or tax-evasion mechanisms.

I placed my order on thanksgiving day (not a great timing maybe, but we don't have that holiday in Europe, so what) and got a reply the week after, telling me that a support case has been created about my request and that Linden Labs is requesting further information. I got the slight feeling that this isn't going to work out like last time.

The first reply was requesting further proof of identity from me, with I provided with a scan of my ID (front and backside). Also they asked me three questions:

1. About the status of my relationship to certain residents (the first is a close friend of mine, the second one is the account I used to pay my rent to)
2. what the source of my SL-income is (you might have guessed right: its my SL sales) and finally
3. my current residential status.

Fair enough, I did the cash-out order while being on holiday abroad and I guess my IP address was not matching the region of my residential address and hence the whole transaction got flagged in their system somehow. I didn't know that this would cause such a problem. Especially if the amount is way below any suspicious levels. We are NOT talking about ten thousands of USD here – my Airships are still not THAT popular^^

Anyway, I answered their enquiries and clarified the matter. At least so I hoped.

To be fair, I had so far rather positive experiences with the Linden Labs support. About two years ago, when I was victim of a copyright infringement, the labs replied promptly to my claim and removed the offending item within a few days.

One or two days later I got a reply telling me that they request me to send in proof of my residence in Germany. Specifically official letters, bank statements or rental invoices or whatsoever from the last 90 days where my current German address is written on.

Now this is the moment where my common sense felt a tiny bit insulted. Who goes on holiday with any of these documents in their luggage? I mean seriously, who takes their voting-registration or insurance certificates while going hiking and enjoying coastal sunsets?

Eventually I remembered that I set up an online account for my health insurance and managed to send them a PDF with my German residence written on.

I felt pretty disappointed and frustrated by the whole situation. And honestly, even after I sent in that document, I wondered if my cash-out would happen at all. I have full understanding that there have to security measures in international money-transfers and fully support according measures where they are necessary. I don't know how strict the laws and regulations for Linden Labs are with financial transactions, but in this particular case, with a rather petty sum and with an absolute transparent way my income has been generated, the situation is simply ridiculous.

Want to see the Prometheus in SL? Here are some places:

Good news! The new Prometheus-Class is now on exhibit in its full life-sized glory at Never Drift and Dark Wishes.

For the future there are several extensions for the ship planned - stay tuned!

The Prometheus II Is here!

I know some of you have been waiting for this release quite a while - too long actually. But real-life had quite a word in that matter and while I'd have loved to see it released at a much earlier date, that was just not possible.

But the long waiting is now over and I can honestly say that the Prometheus-Class II is by far the best ship I ever built. While it shares the same basic layout the old Prometheus-Class has (including 3 decks, elevator and a segmented bridge section), the new ship makes much more use of its space and looks also much more streamlined - and yes: a little bit more aggressive too^^

I also gave it two optional engine variants. Steam engines and dieselpunk-inspired radial engines in the style of the 1930s - and I think they both look very good in it!

Oh and the best thing of all: there is a flyable version too!

Here some specifications:

Dimensions:

• Length with landing strip retracted: 44.60 m
• Length with landing strip extended: 68 m
• Width: 30.10 m
• Height: 16.50 m

Enough blablah - lets have some pictures. They say more than a thousand words anyway:

The Prometheus-Class II is now available on the Marketplace! I decided to put it on a promotional price for the first week - so better get it as long its cheap!^^

A Rezzing-Platform for the Gyrocogster!

Some of you may remember the Airplane-rezzer we had at New Shoregate. While it was actually a pretty good idea (some friend were nagging me about having such a thing for quite a while, hello Prof, btw!), I wasn't quite happy with it. Once you took a plane from it, no further one would appear and the rezzer had the bad habit of stopping to work after sim-restarts.

The Gyrocogster-Rezzing Platform at the Never Drift Fort.

To make a long story short: it really became time to make a proper rezzing system by ourselves, which rezzes a new vehicle, as soon it leaves the platform (and is in general a bit more robust and resource-friendly). As usually, I did the mesh-model (with a sporty land impact of 2) and Emma used her scripting magic to do... scripting magic!

And at the Dark Wishes Manor

A big thank you to Professor Wickentower and Talia Davidov for putting the rezzers at their sims. Please feel free to jump into the Gyrocogsters there and have a tour!

If you like to have your own Gyrocogster-Rezzer, there are available now at the Marketplace and at the Drow Science Stores inworld, for example at Never Drift, or at Tesla Isle.

Last Day of SL12B Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the last day of SL12B! If you haven’t visited it yet: hurry! ;-)

The Dream Generator. Not a world-domination machine - really!

It's starting up...

This little picture gallery shows my Dream Generator in action.

New Steampunk Vehicle and More of SL12B!

As I hinted one or two posts ago, I was in the middle of working on a new creation when SLB came in between. Well sort of. The design was basically finished in my head, I just had to get it out (which is sometimes actually the harder part). So the change to building The Dream of Steampunk was a pretty welcome one. After that was finished, I had a fresh approach for:

Tada! My new Steampunk Gyrocogster!

I dare to say this cute little thing is one of my finest builds yet. It is quintessential steampunk with its da-vinci-style wings, the steam-engine and its irresistable cute look.

2nd Week Of The SL12B - Part 2

As promised yesterday, here is the continuation of my SL12B gallery. Some of the buildings you can find there belong to the finest you can find in SL - and outside of it.
Of course building quality isn't everything. Some exhibits impress with clever ideas, making extensive use of the possibilities virtual worlds do offer - others look just damn cool!

Not a borg-anthill: Astonish DJ Stage

SL12B! Tomorrow! Yeäh!

The recent days were busy busy busy for us. Getting our infernal machine ready for the exhibit, working on the hunt gift and a few other things, which will hopefully be finished in the next days - yes, I must be mad to do all this stuff...

Do you dare to turn the dream generator on? I bet you do!

Many many thanks to my lovely partner Emma who spent her spare time this week scripting all the craziness I was building! (and it became more and more) You are the best dear!

Also big thanks to Professor Wickentower, who provided me with some of his cool steampunk airships for my exhibit. They do look fantastic, don't they?

Now we can finally relax and wait for the big opening. I can't wait to see all the other exhibitions and the events. It's going to be a pretty cool time!
Please note, the events will be held in the first week, starting tomorrow, while the exhibits will be around for another week, to give everyone the opportunity to see them.

Speaking of seeing. My exhibit made it into the Destination Guide! I am happy, very happy. And yes: quite proud too.

These links will provide you with everything you need:

The Dream Of Steam Exhibit

SL12B on the Destination Guide

SL12B Blog and Timeline

I hope you have a great time there!

Getting Ready For SL12B!

Yes, it is that time of the year again, when the grid celebrates the birthday of Second Life. Its the 12th already - time flies! 12 years are quite a steep age for the internet. When SL started, there was no Facebook, Amazon mostly sold books and even Google was still rather a novelty.
I personally didn't experience SL until 2007, which also is an appalling while ago already! So I got spared from all that mayhem of the grid's early days - and experienced instead the regular mayhem we more or less still have today!

Over the years I learned a lot here. About people, myself and last but not least building. When I started with SL I had absolutely no idea about building or even meshes, textures or scripts. I actually didn't dare to touch the build window until being 2 years on the grid - and promptly messed a nice set of wings up!

Well, things have changed. I can mess up the things I have built by myself now! Yay - achievement! But seriously: I am very happy for what I have learned and for the creativity inside me I could unleash via this lovely and messy and laggy digital world called Second Life.

In the recent years I also went more and more into attending events. First as visitor and blogger, but more and more also as exhibitor and this year's SLB will be very special for me in this regard: I will have my own exhibit on SLB!

I was busy building my exhibit most part of last week, taking my inspiration from various directions, added with a good amount of madness and megalomania. May I introduce: The Dream Of Steam!

I bet you don't guess where I got the idea for the building from. 

The exhibit features the most sophisticated steam- and tesla-technology. With lots of rotating gears (ask Emma, she had to script them all!), discs, glowing tubes and tanks and lightning and whatnot, to spread funny and crazy steampunk dreams into the world. Likely without causing permanent physical or psychological harm - yay!

No, it's not a doomsday-machine. Well, at least not quite.

The 16 SL12B sims will be opened on Sunday, June 21 at 12 PM SLT. The first week will see plenty of events. More info about this on the official SLB blog.

And here is a direct-link to my exhibit. The best way to start exploring SLB anyway, if you ask me!

Have a wonderful time!

Too Much Reality!

If you ask me about the aspect I like most in Second Life, my answer will be "the sheer endless ways to be creative".
And really, there is hardly another medium which combines so many ways of expressing yourself: Change your appearance as you like, do photography, tell stories (role-plays, machinimas, book-readings, comics...), perform music, build whatever weird thing you want to build - virtual worlds consisting of user-generated content are the definite way to create and publish your ideas in the digital age.

Live your dream - with cheese and bacon!

However, having this thought in mind, I am sometimes quite surprised how much SL tries to copy reality, where it doesn't really have to. Of course, there are some really exciting Sims around, which create their own crazy worlds: Insilico, The Wastelands, Forgotten City, Flotsam and New Babbage for example. Each of them is a pure joy to explore, but they are just (partly in a very literal way) islands in an ocean of reality-mimicry. Most of the things you will find in SL are copies of what we know and see in real-life.
I don't say that is bad, but real-life designs are usually a compromise. They have to be designed to be mass-produced, follow limitations in costs and safety-regulations and pesky laws of physics.

The nice thing with building in SL on the other hand is that you can let go. You don't have to bother too much about the laws of physics, or safety regulations or whatever. As long it looks good and plausible enough, it works.

A big part of being creative is to put rather common things into a new context. It is also fun ;-)

As a builder of creations which are usually not based on real-life examples, I enjoy the freedom to not have to worry too much if that thing I just put together would really fly (or even fly well), but I try to make it at least look believable ("it could fly, you know...").
On the other hand it is of course helpful to look at real-life creations and take elements from them - fair enough. You don't have to invent the wheel again - its more fun to put it in a new context and create exciting new things!

Big WW1-Anniversary-Airplane Overhaul!

When you step into a modern passenger plane today or see a jet fighter above your head and hear the boom when it breaks the sound barrier, its easy to forget that exactly 100 years ago, during World War 1, aviation was still in its infancy. The air planes were flimsy constructions made of wood, wire and fabric and their air-bases were usually not more than an abandoned field and some tents and shacks.

Immortal legend: Manfred von Richthofen's red Fokker Triplane.

Despite their simplicity air planes were something exotic and spectacular though. Wherever an airplane was spotted, people couldn't help but gaze at them and cheer to their pilots, who were idolized like superstars.

Albatros D.Va - the backbone of the German air force in 1917 and 1918.

These people were daredevils in the best sense of the word. Flying these fragile, but deadly armed machines to fight each other, thousands of feet above the ground. Without parachute. Day after day, sometimes from morning till sunset.

Sopwith Camel - the most successful fighter of the war.

No era in aviation fascinates me more than World War 1. Build just a few years after the first motorized flight, these machines are the definite flying machines for me. They didn't had much engine power, or sophisticated weapons or highly developed flight-control systems. Some 100 hp, a machine-gun or two and wire-controlled rudders had to do. But this primitiveness, this basic and natural flying with the pilots exposed to the elements and listening to their guts rather than looking at their instruments is the stuff legends are made of.

Fokker D.VII - the best German fighter plane.

Nieuport 17 - one of WW1's most classy (and good looking) designs.

Fast and powerful and aggressive: the S.E.5a.

To celebrate this legendary era, I did update all of my World-War-1 air planes. With improved textures and new mesh parts and a general design overhaul, these machines look better than ever before. I also have released a new creation: a 1915 Fokker E.III 'Eindecker' (monoplane). The game-changer of aerial warfare! The Eindecker was the first fighter plane with an interrupter-geared machine gun to fire through the propeller arc, which allowed the pilots a much higher firing accuracy than in any other plane. It took the Allies until well into 1916 till they had a match for the Fokker Eindecker. Until then, the E.III remained the definite fighter plane.

How it all started: The Fokker Eindecker.

All creations are available now! Check them out!

Sim Redecoration @Unzipped!

My friends Destany and Barnabas at Tesla Isle have given their sim a major - and quite beautiful - redesign.

Besides the new layout, with a lovely shopping village and plenty of scenic spots, the new place will also see new events, like treasure-hunts - great news!

After setting up my new store there I had a stroll around the sim with my partner Emma.

The Unzipped Mainstore with the new landing-area in the foreground.

Lovely Airship!

From the mainstore our journey lead us to the village on the eastern side of the sim. 

The center of the village is marked by a ring of gothic arches

Oh what a lovely store!

View from the village to the Unzipped mainstore in the north.

A little underwater excursion.

Back on the surface we met the local sea-dragon Tessie, who looks quite happy in its new environment!

As you see, there is a lot to explore and I guess I didn't even scratched the surface yet. The sim is definitely worth taking a look or two ;-)

Unzipped Landing point

Drow Science @Tesla Isle


P.S. Yes, thats a Ms. Marvel outfit I am wearing. I didn't change since our last dance at Raven Park. Putting on so much skin-coloured makeup over my natural drow grey was a hell lot of work btw ;-)

An Undead... Sim?

Shoregate, today afternoon: still kinda there.

It seems not only the zombies of New Shoregate, but the whole sim itself has become undead! Exactly one week after the last payment happened the place is still intact! Well – mostly.

I don't expect this state to last for much longer though. I guess the rental company just wants to show what beautiful landscaping and builds are possible on a homestead sim. There is at least a clear sign that the land managers did indeed visit and like the place. They put up their land sale booth right in front of the tower, instead of clearing up the sim and rezzing it then.

This is quite ironic, but shows how much the place was and still is appreciated and loved. That's at least how I interpret it ;-)

So if you want to pay the Sim that was New Shoregate a last visit – better hurry. It is still here. But who knows for how long.

This way, please.


P.S.
Due to changing the land-group by the rental company zombies, kraken or the plane rezzer don't work anymore. but the tram is still there! 

Sunglasses!

Spring is coming! And to encounter the increased level of sunlight by the stylish way, I have released fashionable steampunk Sunglasses.

Steampunk Flip-Lense Sunglasses. Made of certified mesh-wood to protect the rainforest!

As special feature they come with flip-lenses and six different lense colours. Yes, makes them look a little nerdy, but nerdy is the new cool! Especially if you are a steampunk!

The also come in Walnut...

...Ebony. The black & gold combination is lovely, isn't it?!

Also new in my store: Art Deco Fanlights: keeping you cool and illuminated, and this for just 1 Li!

Simple elegance: Art Deco Fanlights.

Visit Drow Science at New Shoregate, or at the Marketplace.

Hunting Streetsigns with Balloons!

At least kinda ;-) I wanted to give you a quick heads-up on the recent events and activities concerning Drow Science and New Shoregate. 

Lets start with the Battle Balloon tournament, which 4th competition will be held tomorrow 1 PM, New Shoregate (same time-space coordinates as always)

For the Rambo-moments in life: New Shoregate's Battle Balloon Tournament!

Tomorrow is also when our Name-the-Street-contest is ending. You still have the chance of getting some steampunktastic prizes, so hurry and send me your note! :-)

Oh no! A blank Sign! Help it getting a name - and its friends too!

And last but not least: The Steam X hunt is going throughout march, which this lovely gift waiting for the brave hunters:

Want know more - check out the Steam X blog. The battle balloons are waiting here at their take-off site, and this link leads you to the Name-the-Street-Contest!

I wish you lots of fun and good luck!

Street-Naming-Constest: Countdown Is Ticking!

Just a few days left till the New Shoregate Street-Naming-Contest closes! To preserve your chances for some cool prizes (up to airship-size!) send in your proposals before March 12!

The rules are rather simple: write your idea for each number into a notecard and write your name on it, so we can identify you later! (Hint: you don't have to name each number, but each number which gets chosen, wins!)

Here are the rules in their full epic lenght. I wish you happy naming!