Getting Started

[Chyna1225]

Hello Second Life,

I am new to SL.  I find everything difficult to do but I'm hopeful that I will learn!  

My excitement to be a part of the SL community, I jumped right in, without proper research.  I have spent hours trying to read and watch videos on the get started learning materials and I'm still not able to change the appearance of my avatar and many other things.  My knowledge base on a scale of 1 to 10 is about a 3 on SL. 

 

Specifically,  I want to learn how to wear/unpack clothes, hair, furniture, change color of the walls, listen to music decorate inside my home, understand how to work the folders that have all of my inventory (clothes, furniture, body, heads, skin, etc.).  I want to wear a new mesh head, hair, new body, eyes, clothes, shoes accessories etc.

 

Also,  I wanted to change my Linden home.  I have a Stilt Home on Land which is lovely and I wanted a Stilt Home on water if it's possible to change.

 

Thank you!

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

That is alot to ask of any free private tutor and a huge time commitment to ask of anyone.  What is the ONE thing you would like to learn first?

[Josephine Carissa]

Hello Chyna,

Here are a few blogs that will help you:

StrawberrySingh.com – A lifestyle blog about the virtual world of Second Life

Strawberry is now a Linden, but there is a wealth of information on there.

Naria Panthar - YouTube

Naria usually does video's on new heads, and bodies....and also does some of the weekly sales.

There are lots of videos directly from LL here.

It seems like a good idea to check out sources that way you are able to go at your own speed when you personal time allows.

Best Regards,

Josephine

 

[Katherine Heartsong]

I can help with the home thing. You can have only one Linden home at a time with a Premium membership, Stilts on Water/Land are two of the numerous types available.

To get a new home you need to be at your first home, right click on the land and select "Abandon" and then use the SL website dashboard when you're logged in to clock on "Get your Home Now", select the stilt home on water, name it, and voila, if there are that type available you have a new home. Then teleport to the new SUrl and landmark the location and then choose "Set Home to Here" when you get inside.

Note that when you abandon the first one you will be "homeless" and will need to hope that the Stilt on Water is available after selecting Bellesaria in the pulldown. At the moment there isn't one (there was at least one earlier today as I was setting my male alt up with a new home), but you can refresh every few minutes and as soon as one comes up, grab it. They have always seemed to be the hardest to grab, so good luck and enjoy your new place.

[Katherine Heartsong]

Your next mental hurdle will be when you discover those orange boxes that all look the same and that get delivered to your inventory when you buy clothes, furniture, flowers, shoes, bodies, hair, skins, sofas, houses etc, often will open in one of several different ways, even though they all look like the same thing in your inventory. I know, i know, but here's a basic primer ...

Most clothing, just right click and select "Add". A HUD will most likely appear and ask you to click it and then deliver the real unpacked items into your inventory. Once they're there (a few seconds usually) you can then right click the HUD that appeared and select Dismiss. You could then toss the original packed inventory item away, keeping only the unpacked folder of things. Sometimes a blue dialogue will drop down asking you if you want to accept it, obviously yes but be warned ... some folks first spam you with a subscribe ask first, then the unpack dialogue. Grrrr. Sometime the HUD that appears will go away by itself when the item is unpacked.

Other items often need to be dragged from your inventory to the ground where you can "rezz" things (your home, sandboxes etc), then right clicked and opened and then follow the dialogue to add the unpacked items into your inventory. Then take the item back (Pick Up) and either keep or throw it away.

Those are two of the common ways to unpack things. Helpful?

Edited April 17, 2023 by Katherine Heartsong

[Katherine Heartsong]

Avatars? Big topic. To fully customize you'll need a body, head, skin for head, matching skin (tone) for body, hair. This will cost you nearly free, through to about L10,000.

My only advice is to demo everything!!! And buy hair from places that provide all the colours in one purchase, that don't make you buy hair colours in separate packs. DOUX, and others, are great places for that. For clothing, same thing. Demo everything based on the body you buy. For starters, and for best cost/value try Hilly Haalan or Just Because, depending on the look you want. Just buy a pair of jeans, cute top, and heels to start then expand.

[Jennifer Boyle]

I'm guessing from your name that you are female.

You do need to work on one thing at a time. Trying to do it all at once is just too much. I'm going to guess that, if you have to choose one thing to do first, it will be to customize your avatar. You'll need a mesh body and head. You could try a lot of different ones, or you could just assume that there are good reasons that the most popular ones are popular and go with those. If you do the latter, you'll want a Maitreya Lara body and whichever Lelutka EvoX head you like best, as well as a nice skin. Then you'll need ONE OR TWO hairstyles. Doux was mentioned above. Truth is another good brand. At first, get just A FEW outfits suitable for different occasions. DON'T OVERBUY. There are myriad good clothing stores. A couple of my favorites are Layla's and Scandalize. You'll need shoes; you can't go wrong with KC. That will get you started. I recommend pause your shopping at that point until you learn how to use what you have. You will have enough to have a nice, nicely-dressed avatar. Then, you can decide whether doing more with it, i.e., expanding your wardrobe with accessories and a greater variety of clothes or working on your house is more important as the next step.

I have been here since 2007, and am still working on both my avatar and my house, and always will be,

Have fun!

Feel free to contact me inworld.

[Marianne Little]

I just add to the "home" question.

Stilt on Water is one of the most popular homes. It is no one built now, so you have to hope on catching an abandoned one.

I use an Auto Refresh addon. Find one for your browser, and it must be the type where it plays a sound to alert you. If you use "water" as the word it's monitoring, you get only alerts for the Stilt on Water. It is a limit to how often you can refresh the page, it is ten per 10 minutes.

The benefit of this is that you can read, write emails, work or play while the Auto Refresh is working in the background. Then it's just to wait. It can be days, and if you aren't fast enough, the house can be selected by another person.

Maybe you can try a houseboat? They are on the page, free to claim. You can change the model by clicking on the life preserver next to it. So you are not limited to the one that is already there. Some look like cozy small houses. https://modemworld.me/2022/12/30/looking-at-the-linden-homes-premium-houseboat-update/

And all are on water!

It is an underforum here that's named "Linden Homes". People are friendly, and if you ask if anybody plan to abandon their Stilt on Water, maybe somebody let you know when, so you sit ready with the home page open. It does not hurt to ask, many abandon their home all the time, also popular ones.

It is not a 100% sure way to get their house, because you're not the only one hunting for that particular type. The one that click fastest, get it. It is not possible to transfer between residents.

The Linden Homes is where you can ask all kind of question related to them.

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/forum/357-linden-homes/

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Marianne Little
so many typos

[Marianne Little]

I would say start on one end, and do not try to do all at once. With a Linden Home, you always have a place to live and "rezz" boxes to unpack them, as @Katherine Heartsongalready covered.

The Premium Sandboxes is another place where you can unpack things, and it is a good place to go and drag out the item if you get a message that you can't rez in your Linden Home. Some furniture have a very high Land Impact, and the Land Impact is 351 in a Linden Home. It can also be other issues, but best to ask in the Linden Homes part of the forum.

https://secondlife.com/destinations/premium/sandboxes

It is also a "Bellisseria Citizens Group" where you can ask questions, or just chat. It is always someone in that group, it is many members and always chatty. Too much chat for me, hehe. But if you need help fast, this can be better than the forum. Mostly helpful and friendly people, and abusive ones get kicked out. https://sites.google.com/view/bellisseriacitizens/home

Edited April 18, 2023 by Marianne Little

[Marianne Little]

Over to bodies. You already got a suggestion for Maitreya. I second that, unless you want a very curvy body. You can make Maitreya curvy too, but most prefer a newer body made specially to be curvy. I would say Ebody Reborn. Neither of these are on the Marketplace. You need to visit the store.

https://secondlife.com/destination/maitreya

https://secondlife.com/destination/ebody

 

Be careful whan you shop.

Linden Lab has no quality control on the sellers, in world and on the Marketplace. A lot of what's sold is old and outdated. It is not a long time since a resident came to the Forum and asked for help. She had bought Lena Lush, an old body that's really difficult to use and find skins and clothes for. You are safe with Maitreya and Ebody Reborn, they are two popular bodies and easy to shop for.

You can only use things made for the body you end up buying. Look at the ads. If it say only Maitreya, and not Reborn, you can't use Maitreya on your Reborn body. This is why we say always demo. Things can have a bad fit too, or you are disappointed when you use it. It is like in real, sellers want to show the things in the best light and with the best accessories. If you can't find a demo, I suggest you don't buy.

All sales are final, everywhere, Marketplace and in world. When you give sellers your money, you will not get them back in 99,99% cases. Linden Lab does not help, they say it is a dispute between residents.

I would start with a body, and learn how to use it before I move on to a head. A detail that you need to know, is that it's best to use "Add" when you want to add new things. Many use "Wear" because in real, you wear clothes. The right hand is the default attachment point, and many creators does not bother to change it. You can have on jeans, wear a top, and be naked from the waist down.

Add has only one weakness, you have to take off the items when you have two of the same things added om each other. Like two jeans on top of each other. Wear is mostly useful for hairs, because hair has the same attachment point, so you want to take off the first hair and replace it with the new.

Phew, I think I stop here. I have written so much, you have a lot to try from all this.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Marianne Little

[Katherine Heartsong]

@Marianne Little is right .. with clothing, even with brands I love, I always demo. If there is not a demo of a piece of clothing, I won't buy it ... yes, even if it's my favourite store. All of us here have spent too many Lindens on clothes that had some flaw or another that wasn't apparent until you tried them on.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Katherine Heartsong

[Nalates Urriah]

Some consider SL a game...

From Rhonda Huntress in answer to whether or not SL is a game:

I have found that underneath it is a game.

It is an inventory management game where you sort and categorize items with increasing complexity while creators strive to develop new items that defy conventional categories.  Soft caps are there to force you to weed out duplicate and superfluous items or risk crashing, being turned into a cloud or worse yet, loosing large portions of your inventory.  Everyone has to play the game to some extent and the rest of the world is there to entice you to add more and more items to your inventory.

The point is... start organizing your inventory now. Will save you headaches later.

[Katherine Heartsong]

2 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

The point is... start organizing your inventory now. Will save you headaches later.

Truer words never spoken, @Nalates Urriah .

[Chyna1225]

Hello All,

Thank you so much everyone for taking time out and providing me with excellent information!  Have an amazing day!!!

Cheers,

Chyna1225

[Trinity Blakewell]

Definitely the three female bodies you will find the most support for right now are Maitreya, Ebody and Legacy.  Of these, I think Maitreya is the least expensive. Each body has positives and negatives, so check the comments here in the forums and perhaps try a demo.

For a head, pick either EvoX or one of the brands that uses the EvoX mapping. By all means join the Lelutka group so that you can pick up the free head at Christmastime, assuming they do as they have done for the last few years. 

KC Couture was mentioned for shoes, let me add that they typically have several styles on sale during the weekend events, and their shoes are fatpacks with a large variety of colors, so they are a great deal on the weekends!

I'm not sure I totally agree on "buy the fatpack" for hairs. It all depends. I typically use a color close to my natural hair color, simply because I like it. I'd much rather have that color family than pay a lot more for a fatpack. Join Truth's group and Magnika's group, as they each give out several free hairs a year. And I would add Magnika and Wings to the shortlist of good hairs mentioned earlier (Truth and Doux). One other hair group to join is Sintiklia. While I think they are a slight step down in quality from my top four brands, they have a large amount of hair group gifts, typically offering lots of options with their hair styles.

For skins, I would personally go to Velour and try on their body skins - and pick one shade you really like, and buy it. Unless you like a lot of shine with the body skin, pick the Venus line. This will set you up well for buying face skins from many brands at low cost at the weekend sales. Velour for body skins is not quite as dominant as EvoX for head skins, but it is by far the most popular body skin at this point that other brands are making head skins to match. You may decide you like other body skins better, but to begin, I think this is the easiest route. If you want one brand that will give you both face and body skins, go to Seven Deadly Skins and join their group (they have monthly group gifts and also tend to run items on weekend sales). I personally think a lot of their skins look very similar to each other, but I still recommend them to new folks.

And, I can't stress enough the importance of joining groups that will provide you with lots of freebies. Many of these groups are free to join. For the clothing side, check out Hilly Hamlin and Coco, both of which offer a lot of group gifts. Scandalize has a lot as well, but is not really my style.
 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Trinity Blakewell

[Persephone Emerald]

When you're new in SL, try to not spend a bunch of money right away. Maitraya Lara is the most popular female mesh body, so it has the most skins and clothing made for it, including lots of free stuff. The free body on the Midnight Madness board at LucyBody fits Maitreya skins and clothes though, so you can start with that one if you want. Just be sure to buy the Bakes On Mesh addition for it for about $L 200 (less than $ 1). 

There is now a very good Tutorial area at the BelliHub region that I recommend for explaining some of the basics of SL. Right next to this region on the same island is a Demo area for the Bellisseria Linden Homes. This little island also has a dance area and games, so you might meet people too.

For a mesh head, the Lelutka EvoX ones are best, partly because they can be used with either EvoX skins or non-EvoX skins. If you join the Akeruka group though, they may offer EvoX compatible group gift heads for $L 1 in June. In June and December there are the most good free items available in SL. June is the SL birthday month. December has a bunch of Advent and Christmas gifts.

Edited April 24, 2023 by Persephone Emerald

[Katherine Heartsong]

3 hours ago, Trinity Blakewell said:

I'm not sure I totally agree on "buy the fatpack" for hairs. It all depends.

What I meant to say here for the OP was I avoid shops where hairs cost 400-500L for a single set of colours (say, brunette), because there are store like DOUX that for the same price offer all the colours in their HUDs. Several of the good clothing stores do that as well offering tremendous value, like HH you mentioned

[Psyche Starling]

4 hours ago, Trinity Blakewell said:

 

I'm not sure I totally agree on "buy the fatpack" for hairs. It all depends. I typically use a color close to my natural hair color, simply because I like it.
 

I do this too! It means some demoing until I get familiar with a store, because the color I like is (for example) in the Dark Blondes at Sintiklia but in Brunettes at Truth. And then Magika is great because you get all the colors.

[Persephone Emerald]

By the way, if you haven't bought the Maitreya Lara body yet, be sure to join their store group and wear the tag for it before you buy the body. This way you'll get store credit that you can use to buy clothes at the Maitreya store.

Edited April 24, 2023 by Persephone Emerald