Road trip/voyage of discovery - advice?

[Amina Sopwith]

Hello all.

I'm back in SL after a prolonged hiatus and after reading a post on another thread, I'm loving the idea of doing a road/sea/air trip around SL, discovering places I wouldn't otherwise encounter and just getting an idea of where places actually ARE. I remember I did attempt to do something like this last time I was a regular user, and tried to walk/fly around rather than TP, but I always hit private region barriers, no-fly areas with weirdly uncrossable terrains, huge bodies of water that just didn't seem to end and I got bored of flying or literally fell out of the air...just never seemed to get very far somehow. 

Could I get some advice/tips on how to do this, what I'd need and where I was going wrong last time? I don't even know how large the full grid actually IS. There was a mention of roads in SL and I've never seen one outside of a RP or situational sim. Is a boat necessary for the water, or is it possible just to fly over it? If I find myself on another interminable body of water, does that mean I've gone wrong? 

All input gratefully received. I am an experienced SLer but very rusty after several years out so quite happy to hear basic level stuff, I probably need it.

Thank you very much.


 

[Sandy Schnook]

Welcome back!  If it's a long journey you want, you might want to look for the mainland continents.  Most have roads you can travel, with many roadside places you can stop in and visit.  I live on Gaeta V and  walked the perimeter of the continent a couple months ago and the trip prompted me to make a public roadside rest stop.  The place I hear most about for sailing is the Blake Sea.  Your best bet to find a continent is open your world map and they tend to be on the far right side.  Also Google Second Life Continents to find more.

[MoiraKathleen]

You could take a look at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Second_Life_Road_Network_Directory  .  That has links to pages showing/talking about the road networks on each of the mainland continents.  It's older documentation, but I think in terms of the mainland roads, the info is probably still good.  That is where I first got started on learning about the geography and road networks.   A link back from the link above is http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Second_Life_Geography which has a section on Transportation and has links to more information about sailing, flying and trains (not sure how up to date info about flying and trains is, but that's part of the fun of exploring).

There is a group inworld also - can't remember the name offhand - that generally has a little building along a route on each continent with wall maps showing the routes.  As you travel along the roads, there will be periodic rez zones.  I generally take a LM and keep it in a folder under continent and then route #, so it's easy to find your way back to a spot along the route where you can rez a vehicle if you want.   

There are some channels for flying and/or boating between some of the mainland continents, but not all of them. 

[Talligurl]

The is an SL airplane passenger group that sends out notices when a pilot is about to fly a plane somewhere, and you can then fly as a passenger, it is a cool way to explore SL. I once discovered the place I was at was seven sims from my home, so I walked there, it was an interesting experience.

[Klytyna]

2 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Is a boat necessary for the water,

 

 

1. Open the world-map in your viewer by pressing crtl-m.
2. in the region search box on the panel, type "Ahab's".
3. You should see the map centered on a region called "Ahab's Haunt", which looks a little odd on the world map, a small island with a big white framework on it.
4. Teleport to Ahab's Haunt.
5. Marvel at the Landmark!
6. Walk to the north west or south east docks and click the free yacht dispenser.
7. Rez your free yacht in the rez zone surrounding the dock.
8. Sail! 
    

[Claireschen Hesten]

In the same continent as Ahab's Haunt is Emin Marina it's a little island marina in the middle of the sea with boat slips and a clubhouse. Boats, Life-ring's & Diving gear are dispensed free. In Nautilus there are lots of LL islands, atolls & archipelagos in the seas so head over to Ahab's or Emin rezz a boat open up the map find a patch of land that looks interesting (the giant sandcastle at Valenza is worth a look) click it close map follow the red arrow and you won't get lost

[Selene Gregoire]

[Amina Sopwith]

Thanks guys! I spent a little time last night on the train and boat around the Color Sims....I had actually never heard of them. Nor have I been aware of the names of any of the continents or known anything about SL geography, despite having once been a very involved SL resident for nearly four years. I guess since I've never had any interest in land ownership/rental, I've neglected a very large part of the SL experience. I'm still not interested in owning/renting land, but I am very interested now in just travelling around and exploring. Thinking of getting a ridable horse and pony trekking part of it!

 

[marinathewitch]

There is a place full of SL maps in world - New Kadath Lighthouse Art Gallery. Worth a visit to learn more about SL geography and history both.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/New Kadath/34/59/23

[lucagrabacr]

`1The SL mainland is divided into 5 main continents or conglomeration of continents -

1. Sansara the original continent with its roads, lakes and varying biomes, which is connected to the swampy Heterocera continent with its pa  through water

2. Jeogeot with its long countryside roads and rez-enabled gulf where people like to do war games

3. Satori with its long roads just like Jeogeot, but with a different biome, which is connected with Nautilus City Island where people get 2x prims for their lands, Nautilus Continent which also has roads but has many bodies of inland waters, Blake Sea which is a privately owned collection of regions where most airports, yacht club and related activities are centered at

[Marianne Little]

23 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Thanks guys! I spent a little time last night on the train and boat around the Color Sims....I had actually never heard of them. Nor have I been aware of the names of any of the continents or known anything about SL geography, despite having once been a very involved SL resident for nearly four years. I guess since I've never had any interest in land ownership/rental, I've neglected a very large part of the SL experience. I'm still not interested in owning/renting land, but I am very interested now in just travelling around and exploring. Thinking of getting a ridable horse and pony trekking part of it!

 

You already have a rideable horse, actually two, in your inventory. They are a part of the new(est?) starter avatars LL released in 2017.

I have not used them since 2017 so my memory isn't so good. But I used them with my own avatar (Skin/body/clothes). not the standard, I think I only attached the horse and AO. The female avatar only has a side sit since they are renaissance avatars but I found out how to trick the system and use the male horse for the common sit.

This video shows where to find them, go in the library -> clothing and the female is Rihanna (Or Rihannon?)

I can't log in much now, it is so busy in RL, but there is a video. 2 minutes in she show where in your inventory you find them, and 7:30 she uses the avatars with the horses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPIxpls1Wdw

If you get interested in riding, you can buy the Water Horse that you can customize, I haven't bought that one even if I thought about it so many times. Again, I can't really say so much, you get better information from this blog: https://aywren.com/2018/03/22/second-life-finding-water-horse/

and a video showing the Water Horse in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scpc1xec6pg

 

 

Edited December 23, 2018 by Marianne Little
wrong year and edited some more

[Marianne Little]

The Fruit Islands is another place you can sail. You can rez your boat at the public beach. These are private sims with land to rent. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fruit Islands/9/71/22

If I were new, I would sail around there, and if it was no green dots on the map, I would use the camera to look better at the houses and gardens there. Many really, really impressive boats outside to admire. People probably don't like it if you pause your boat outside their land for a long time, so just sail past where green dots show the owner is home. Or IM them and ask if you can come in and admire their place.

Some will probably not answer or say no, but many would like it and let you look around. It's nice to show off your place to polite people. I rented in the Pear sim, and it was so lovely. I have a RL that keep me from SL in long periods. I could not justify for myself to pay the rent when I couldn't log in, so I let the place go.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Marianne Little
edited it to Pear

[Amina Sopwith]

Thank you very much for all the help. Horses sound great! 

Lots of good places to sail, that sounds great. Regarding land travel, I seem to be hitting the same problems I did last time I tried this, some years ago. I can never get far without hitting barriers, visible or invisible, and just basically getting stuck. I found what appeared to be an original railway at Heterocera; it was lovely but surprisingly short, though I subsequently had an interesting boat tour around the Color Sims although I crashed before it finished (never change, SL!). 

Has anyone any advice for a place to start off where I might be able to travel in a fairly long, unbroken line? I can't seem to find any roads despite TP-ing to various spots on Heterocera and Sansara, where I'm told there are networks. 

[marinathewitch]

Ok, I have a crush on Sansara, so someone else should speak about Heterocera roads. I am no expert by any means.

 

Here is an article about Sansara Network: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sansara_Network

Do look at road maps and then compare them with map in world. Most of the time roads are clearly visible on in world map. Also, it might add to your enjoyment during the trip to browse links at the end of this article - learn more about continent and it's history, mark a couple landmarks on a map you might want to visit. 

Wiki article has a list of spots where you can rez your vehicle (ground or otherwise). This one, for example, is right next to lengthy Linden road: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noyo/92/179/42

[Marianne Little]

Try to teleport here to NCI in Kuula. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuula/55/168/29

I was living close by in Poliahu, and the road was open both northeast and southwest from NCI.

Do you have banlines turned on? You can see them in time and stop if you don't travel fast.

There can be a problem with security orbs that are set to a wide radius and reach on over the road. I am not sure what can be done with them. Trees and other phantom objects should not be a problem if they are planted and overhang the road.

I wonder if you should make landmarks as you travel, if you are teleported home you can go back to the last one and progress slowly. If you are on Linden road or water and you find something blocking the road, you can submit a ticket and ask to have it removed, I think.

I have not used the default LL viewer so I am not familiar with it. The Firestorm map is good, and I can see the roads so clearly. I can also click on the map, on the road in the next sim and teleport there, it is a way to get past a roadblock or a nasty security orb.

 

Edited December 23, 2018 by Marianne Little

[Qie Niangao]

1 hour ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Thank you very much for all the help. Horses sound great! 

Lots of good places to sail, that sounds great. Regarding land travel, I seem to be hitting the same problems I did last time I tried this, some years ago. I can never get far without hitting barriers, visible or invisible, and just basically getting stuck. I found what appeared to be an original railway at Heterocera; it was lovely but surprisingly short, though I subsequently had an interesting boat tour around the Color Sims although I crashed before it finished (never change, SL!). 

Has anyone any advice for a place to start off where I might be able to travel in a fairly long, unbroken line? I can't seem to find any roads despite TP-ing to various spots on Heterocera and Sansara, where I'm told there are networks. 

My favorite route in SL is Route 2, part of the Heterocera Network of roads that ring and criss-cross the atoll.

Each continent has one or more LDPW Projects such as the roads and (really my favorite of all) the Second Life Rail Road (which doesn't seem "short" to me as it too rings the atoll clockwise from Tuliptree to Bhaga with a branch to Spangle, one to Vicina, and others). You can get more railroad station links and pictures at the VRC website.

 

[Amina Sopwith]

Thanks again all. This is not the first time someone has mentioned the Firestorm viewer...I am quite reluctant to use a different viewer but if it's the only way to make the place work for me now, then I will have to deal. I'm told it might solve my ongoing mesh problems too. 

 

[lucagrabacr]

Whoops, my last post was posted before I finished typing the content somehow. In addition to the areas I mentioned in my previous post, I was about to mention the old teen grid (I think it's called Meiji) which is like a miniature, Sansara, and Zindra, the adult continent  

Also if you're gonna cross sims with vehicles a lot, make sure you disable "predict position during region crossing" or something along that line in the Firestorm viewer preferences / settings, it kinda solves the "vehicles flying around everywhere" issue with laggy vehicles!

[Theresa Tennyson]

On 12/23/2018 at 6:09 AM, Amina Sopwith said:

Thanks again all. This is not the first time someone has mentioned the Firestorm viewer...I am quite reluctant to use a different viewer but if it's the only way to make the place work for me now, then I will have to deal. I'm told it might solve my ongoing mesh problems too. 

 

If you're used to the Linden Lab viewer you might prefer Catznip instead as the interface is closer to the LInden Lab viewer. It has the same higher-information minimap as Firestorm - in fact, it was the Catznip developer who did the coding on it initially.

[Lindal Kidd]

On 12/23/2018 at 3:19 AM, Amina Sopwith said:

Thank you very much for all the help. Horses sound great! 

Lots of good places to sail, that sounds great. Regarding land travel, I seem to be hitting the same problems I did last time I tried this, some years ago. I can never get far without hitting barriers, visible or invisible, and just basically getting stuck. I found what appeared to be an original railway at Heterocera; it was lovely but surprisingly short, though I subsequently had an interesting boat tour around the Color Sims although I crashed before it finished (never change, SL!). 

Has anyone any advice for a place to start off where I might be able to travel in a fairly long, unbroken line? I can't seem to find any roads despite TP-ing to various spots on Heterocera and Sansara, where I'm told there are networks. 

Try this for land travel:  Join the group "Pod Riders".  These people like to travel the Linden Roads on the free Yava Pod systems that use them.

For traveling over sea and air, I like two navigational aids.  The first is simply the World Map.  If you single click your destination, an arrow will appear in world that keeps you pointed in the right direction.  You can minimize the Map and follow the arrow.  If you encounter difficulties en route, open the map back up to see various obstacles, and possible ways around them.  The other aid is the "Ban Line and Parcel Full HUD".  This is a display that gives you advance notice of hazards to navigation.

"Invisible barriers":  This is often just a sim edge, with void on the other side.  The Map or the Ban Line HUD can help you avoid trying to fly or sail into areas that appear to be open ocean, but are actually not there.

The Tradewinds Yacht Club offers a couple of free sailboats, and you can sail a long way from there.  Try heading south into the Blake Sea and see if you can reach Barbarossa or the Hollywood Yacht Club.

[MoiraKathleen]

2 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

"Invisible barriers":  This is often just a sim edge, with void on the other side.  The Map or the Ban Line HUD can help you avoid trying to fly or sail into areas that appear to be open ocean, but are actually not there.

To add on to Lindal's comment about sim edges and what appears to be open ocean - with some trial and error experience, over time, you will be able to look at the map inworld and usually recognize whether it's void space or if it is really ocean.  (There is a subtle difference between how the blue looks on the map). 

Another cool thing about the map is if you single click on it, it generally displays the name of the parcel where you clicked.  You can find abandoned land or waterways that sound public (like Coastal Waterway) or roads this way.  

[Selene Gregoire]

3 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

If you're used to the Linden Lab viewer you might prefer Catznip instead as the interface is closer to the LInden Lab viewer. It has the same higher-information minimap as Firestorm - in fact, it was the Catznip developer who did the coding on it initially.

If you want FS to be like the old V1 viewer... you can have that. Just click on the Mode dropdown on the login screen. There are 6 options. Even a hybrid one.

Quote

At the Firestorm log in screen, next to the log In button, is a drop down menu, which allows you to select the default viewer mode. These can be one of:

• Phoenix
• Firestorm
• Hybrid
• Viewer 6
• Latency
• Text

This allows you to select the overall “look and feel” of the viewer. Text mode disables almost all rendering; it exists for those who need to get inworld on very low end computers.

https://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_viewer_modes

Link for the various skins options: https://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/preferences_skins_tab

Edited December 27, 2018 by Selene Gregoire

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, moirakathleen said:

To add on to Lindal's comment about sim edges and what appears to be open ocean - with some trial and error experience, over time, you will be able to look at the map inworld and usually recognize whether it's void space or if it is really ocean.  (There is a subtle difference between how the blue looks on the map). 

Another cool thing about the map is if you single click on it, it generally displays the name of the parcel where you clicked.  You can find abandoned land or waterways that sound public (like Coastal Waterway) or roads this way.  

I think only Firestorm has this kind of map? I have not used the default viewer in years, literally.

I like that I can hoover the mouse over the green dots in mini-map and get up avatar names, see their profile, zoom in on them and so on. If I see an avatar standing on the road next to my parcel, I often do this.

Also Firestorm, yes?

[MoiraKathleen]

25 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

I think only Firestorm has this kind of map? I have not used the default viewer in years, literally.

You're right!  While both LL and Firestorm viewer show the slight variation between void 'ocean' sims and real water sims, only Firestorm shows the additional info about a parcel name when you click on it.   The LL viewer just shows the region name.  (I don't normally use the LL viewer either, but I do have it installed so I just went and tried that out.)   I'm not sure how the other 3rd party viewers handle this aspect of the map. 

Firestorm's mini-map is one of the reasons I stick with that viewer.  I like being able to see the parcels marked out in it, which makes it very handy for water traveling. 

[Amina Sopwith]

I'm going to have to download Firestorm, aren't I? I don't really know why I have such an aversion to using alternative viewers. There is no good reason. I guess I just feel that dammit, SL should work properly in its own bloody viewer. I will have to get over myself.