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Newbie areas desperate for modernisation

rasterscan

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rasterscan

rasterscan

Posted
Posted (edited)

I appreciate LL has a helluva workload but I urge some modernisation of the newcomer areas. This snippet of user conversation merits consideration:

[03:49] Ⓓoc Ⓡast (rasterscan Resident): and yes, the newb areas are still like 2005
[03:49------------------------------------------------------: yeah that's the problem now, when i first came here, i was laughing my ass off
[03:50] ----------------------------------------------------: the standard now should make it look like bellisseria grpahics now
[03:50] ----------------------------------------------------: so it will attract those newbies to explore and stay
[03:50] Ⓓoc Ⓡast (rasterscan Resident): 𝕐𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕪 !

Over to you, SL

 

Edited by rasterscan
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clivesteel

clivesteel

Posted
Posted

If it keeps the greedy content creators, anti-'noob' bigots and premium account pushers (SL's heroin) away, then... leave them as they are.

I hear dozens of conversations in these areas compared to the five lines you posted... for some, these areas are the only safe space to escape the sick grasp of the exploiters who want to push their mesh for a pound of flesh...

 

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Linda Reddevil

Linda Reddevil

Posted
Posted

Funny you should bring this up since last week I visited a few Welcome Areas and even Help Island because I was bored. Nothing has changed in the 13 years since I last visited those places. I agree with you! At least show what is capable in SL, what one can aspire to be, etc. by something as simple as slideshows or a TV playing YouTube videos. Something. Anything. 

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Fauve Aeon

Fauve Aeon

Posted
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I think it would be a good idea to poll the populace on what they think is missing in Welcome Areas and Help Islands, and then hold a design competition to build new ones? Have the poll and announce the competition during SL17B? 
 

I think there needs to be an update in the information given to new people. Simple things like ‘why don’t I look like most everyone else’ and ‘where are the people’ are not addressed, several of the private newbie tutorial areas are hopelessly out of date too. The learning curve for people entering SL has gotten really high. I don’t think it’s good to ignore that. 

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Solar Legion

Solar Legion

Posted
Posted

Help Island Public is little more than a backup and archived presentation of one of the oldest New User experiences. It was left the way it is on purpose.

Many of the Welcome Areas and Information Hubs are user controlled and thus it is not up to Linden Lab to update them.

If you want to see what the current New User experience really is ... make an Alt. What we see on this end is what they see after getting through that experience.

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Scylla Rhiadra

Scylla Rhiadra

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

I gather someone rezzed water today in the middle of Ahern (or one of the four).  I'm not sure how they did it as I thought the rez areas were separate, but there you are.  I suppose they could have been wearing it and sitting very still, which is artistic dedication. :D 

Don't ever change, Ahern.

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Parhelion Palou

Parhelion Palou

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, rasterscan said:

I appreciate LL has a helluva workload but I urge some modernisation of the newcomer areas. This snippet of user conversation merits consideration:

[03:49] Ⓓoc Ⓡast (rasterscan Resident): and yes, the newb areas are still like 2005
[03:49------------------------------------------------------: yeah that's the problem now, when i first came here, i was laughing my ass off
[03:50] ----------------------------------------------------: the standard now should make it look like bellisseria grpahics now
[03:50] ----------------------------------------------------: so it will attract those newbies to explore and stay
[03:50] Ⓓoc Ⓡast (rasterscan Resident): 𝕐𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕪 !

Over to you, SL

 

The old Help Island, Infohubs/Welcome areas, etc. have nothing to do with the onboarding process any more. A new user starts at one of a series of closed regions that contain the early tutorials then go to one of the Social Islands (either Linden ones or private ones owned by groups). The current system is updated fairly frequently. The others are relics and best avoided by newbies.

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Lindal Kidd

Lindal Kidd

Posted
Posted

There are LOTS of newcomer regions now.  How you judge them depends a lot on which one(s) you've visited.

The old, old, old ones are still there, but as Par and Solar note, are no longer used for actual newcomers.  They're mostly only visited by nostalgic practical jokers mourning their glory days and hoping for some actual noobs to stumble on them.  The old, old, old, OLD one, the one with four quadrants and a volcano, I can't find any more.  If there's one of them still around, will somebody please let me know?

There are lots of resident run help areas.  Most of these are accessed through the "Newcomer Friendly" section of the Destinations guide.  However, some residents have used the Gateways program to actually create Welcome Islands, the very first place newcomers rez.  For example, Firestorm has one that has dual info signs...noting the differences between the standard and the SL viewer.  That one sends people on to Firestorm's version of a Social Island, with live helpers.

LL themselves have several versions of Welcome Island and Social Island.  The main ones are the ones that have the outsized greco-roman architecture.  However, there's a romance-themed one, and a sci-fi themed one.  One of the Welcome Islands is a design dating back to the first introduction of mesh and Experiences...an all-white series of domed rooms.

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Ingrid Ingersoll

Ingrid Ingersoll

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Parhelion Palou said:

The old Help Island, Infohubs/Welcome areas, etc. have nothing to do with the onboarding process any more. A new user starts at one of a series of closed regions that contain the early tutorials then go to one of the Social Islands (either Linden ones or private ones owned by groups). 

That's true, forgot about that. I guess help island isnt even used anymore.

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Evah Baxton

Evah Baxton

Posted
Posted (edited)

Some re-texturing and baked ambient occlusion would help some of those areas. Since content creators are doing so much baking and not leaving it up to the engine (which doesn't do a good job of this). However, part of the appeal of the newcomer locations is that they show what is possible with SL's built-in tools.

I think that if LL were to come up with an ambient occlusion texture layer that could be baked in SL after you import your model (or group your prims) it would help all creations.

Edited by Evah Baxton
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Mollymews

Mollymews

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

 I guess help island isnt even used anymore.

Help Island Public still has a group of people who hang out on the landing platform and chat.  Same as people have always done there. Still get the odd new-ish person dropping in asking a question now and again

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Pussycat Catnap

Pussycat Catnap

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

Help Island Public still has a group of people who hang out on the landing platform and chat.  Same as people have always done there. Still get the odd new-ish person dropping in asking a question now and again

Its because they get sent there.

Someone was in the Catwa head group today asking how to configure their male mesh body to look right... they were a day 1 account... people told them to go to help island because well... they were spamming it in the wrong group... I was AFK... It was about a half hour old conversation when I came back and scrolled up to see what I'd missed...

Really... we just need to educate OLD USERS to stop sending new people there... but to instead send them somewhere useful...

There actually are places with people standing around looking to help newbies... I won't mention them only because my list of them is years out of date and I fear one I remember might now be like Help Island... but this makes me want to go check... find out what's the good place now... and start sending folks there...

 

Edited by Pussycat Catnap
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Bree Giffen

Bree Giffen

Posted
Posted

Old areas should be transformed into ruins overrun by wilderness. Structures should be re-textured to worn and faded stone where certain sections are fallen. Trees, vines and other flora should grow wild with animals running around. Other transformations could be used as well, like having an old area fall beneath the sea where the structures are covered with coral and fish swim between them. I think it would be much more visually interesting than simply keeping an old sim exactly the way it is. 

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Syo Emerald

Syo Emerald

Posted
Posted
On 12/29/2019 at 1:14 PM, clivesteel said:

If it keeps the greedy content creators, anti-'noob' bigots and premium account pushers (SL's heroin) away, then... leave them as they are.

I hear dozens of conversations in these areas compared to the five lines you posted... for some, these areas are the only safe space to escape the sick grasp of the exploiters who want to push their mesh for a pound of flesh...

 

Oh, how salty you are!

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NiranV Dean

NiranV Dean

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 12/30/2019 at 5:09 AM, Evah Baxton said:

Some re-texturing and baked ambient occlusion would help some of those areas. Since content creators are doing so much baking and not leaving it up to the engine (which doesn't do a good job of this). However, part of the appeal of the newcomer locations is that they show what is possible with SL's built-in tools.

I think that if LL were to come up with an ambient occlusion texture layer that could be baked in SL after you import your model (or group your prims) it would help all creations.

Ugh. I hate when people bake effects into textures, it clashes hard with the in-rendering features, doubling down on it is a surefire way to break these. Double shadows... double Ambient Occlusion.... Ambient Occlusion should only ever be baked on very special occasions with absolutely static items and static places (so basically never) and if anything should only ever be used to suplement the already existing in-engine SSAO, not replace it. Whenever i see baked Ambient Occlusion it combines with the rendering SSAO and gets way too dark.

Here two comparisons of acceptable ambient occlusion baking (although the roof and wall in the background do have quite strong ambient occlusion baked in)

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=037c4aa8-2bc1-11ea-b9b8-0edaf8f81e27

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=28ddc4fc-2bc1-11ea-b9b8-0edaf8f81e27

 

Edited by NiranV Dean
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