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!^^

The Steam Awakens

Just posting this here because... because!

And before you wonder: no, the Prometheus refit hasn't been shelved, as this picture may suggest. To the contrary actually. More news very soon...

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

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!

Never Drift - First Pictures!

My good (and pretty crazy) friend, Professor Wickentower seems to finally has put down roots - air roots of course! He is now the happy owner of his own homestead region - Never Drift.

Here some first impressions. Needless to mention that its a lovely scenic and steampunky floating village with fort, airship dock, lighthouse, pub - and a lot else to discover!

Currently Never Drift isn’t open for public, but once the building is finished, access will be granted - stay tuned!

Byebye for Now, Dear New Shoregate

Actually I wanted to surprise you with great news about New Shoregate moving to a shared full sim (which would mean more prims, more traffic, more Avatars allowed at the same time) but as things sometimes go in SL, this seems rather unlikely now, due to reasons beyond my control.
I also have to announce that we are forced to close the Sim down today - hopefully just temporarily.

Land pricing in SL is just ridiculous for what you get and one of the reasons it never reached the mainstream, if you ask me. Sims come and go, often before their could reach their full potential due to too high rent costs - like New Shoregate and its predecessor.

This is pretty saddening, taking into account how much time and passion my friends Cyhtleen, the Prof and I put into the Sim to make it the beautiful place it was.

I hope this isn't the last thing you will hear about New Shoregate. I'd be certainly more than happy to recreate it in the (hopefully near) future. Actually Emma and I were busy to make a backup of the buildings I made for the Sim with the Scene-Rezzer-System she did develope. (Interesting fact: The bridges, houses and roads I made were less than 800 prims in total - now is that efficient or not?^^)

So New Shoregate isn't lost. Its essential parts are sleeping in my inventory, ready for their return. And when it comes back it will be better than ever before!


Lets celebrate New Shoregate's glory with this little gallery - I hope you enjoy it!

P.S.
Apart from these rather unpleasant news, things are going great for me. Especially in RL. I was pretty busy in the recent weeks and didn't had much time to be active in SL or write in the Drow Diary. But it's the good busy!

Yay! New Shoregate is close to Completion!

One could argue of course, that a Sim is never really, really, fully finished, but I am happy to say New Shoregate is in a very showable state already! :-)
Regular readers may have noticed that when it gets quiet here *taps the blog and sees some dustclouds rising*, then I'm quite busy with other projects. Well, obviously the other project was New Shoregate!

The massive Shoregate-Tower dominating the city.

It was such a fun to build there - and still is! Cyhtleen and I are a very good team and also the input from our friends was extremely helpful to create a believable, breathing (btw. do zombies breathe?) and very atmospheric city.

At the Harbour,

A big part of the atmosphere comes from the right choice of buildings, colours and the right layout. To achieve this I was looking intensely at prefabs to use at New Shoregate, but I soon realized that if I wanted to have things look right and have a decend land impact (its "just" a Homestead-Sim after all!), I had to make them by myself. Which I did.
I will gradually put the items I created (and will create) on sale: houses, airship docking tower, diverse building compoments - and perhaps even our tram system.

The Tram is elevated, so you can run away from Zombies better!

The Prometheus and the Airpirate-Zeppelin docking at the Shoregate-Tower.

The Northern Bridge.

Speaking of sale: I moved my mainstore from Lionheart to New Shoregate. It is simply a much better display opportunity. Basically the whole sim is a Drow Science showroom! Especialy the new structures and my big airships will benefit a lot from the move. They can't really been exhibited at a rental sim.

The new Drow-Science Mainstore.

The new Drow Science Mainstore is located on the main street leading north from the harbor. Just follow the rails for the Tram and you can't miss it! It also has a Sunshine-Technology-section (the store my partner Emma owns).

Yay! So many nice things to buy!

The creator and her creations.

The Morlock's Revenge Pub. Soon on sale too!

The Cemetery: who knows the first incarnation of Shoregate surely knows how much I like the beauty of decay.

Anyway. I wish you a lot of fun on New Shoregate! We will gradually add more things to it, most prominently a adventure-game/gift hunt based on a Lovecraftian story. Stay tuned for more news!



Your Ticket to New Shoregate

More Rumours!

Rumours go that Shoregate is getting closer to its completion. They also speak of a mysterious expedition by the crew the steam-zeppelin HMS Arkham, to the south pole where they found strange artifacts - and perhaps more than they ever wanted to find...

On its return to Shoregate, the ship crash-landed in a heavy storm just as it reached the city's outskirts. Since that night strange things happened, so they say: A mysterious cult appeared and did their bizarre rituals in the obscurity of the swamp north of the city. Madness and decay did spread all over the island. The dead began to walk on earth, weird creatures, which can't be from this earth appeared and hunted the inhabitants...

Sounds like something you'll have to see? Feel free to have a wander around. I can honestly say it looks already pretty great - still work in progress though!