Jane7811

On the subject of voice I did use it here when I first joined. While I have no objection to it I found that hearing the voice of someone you've gotten to know in text can be something of a let down. You get a mental picture of how someone should sound, then you find they sound awful, or just not as you expect. That may sound odd, but you know when you've read a book and then one day you watch the film and it feels nothing like the book? I don't think I've used voice here now for months. It depends on why you're here of course, if you came for combat and gaming I guess voice would be essential, but for my purposes I find I get more depth from a conversation if it's typed. Lots of parcels have voice disabled too. Trying to converse in a busy pub would be chaos, but in text 50 people can talk like mad with no problem.

There are plenty of non-mesh aircraft out there that look really nice, and cross sim borders fairly decently. And get the Ban Line and Parcel Hud as flying without it is like russian roulette, with it though you can cross the mainland without trouble. As for ban lines themselves, they go up to 80m I think, just fly over them, and you should be above them anyway so as not to be a nuisance to 'ground folk'. Again the Ban Line hud will show you when you're above them. The only ones that go right up to the ceiling are where you've been selectively banned from a parcel, which will usually be your fault. So, if you are going to fly above people's property, try and keep at least 100m above them. If you interrupt their party with a big noisey engine you will probably find yourself on the ban list next time. Some folks are fed up with aircraft for just this reason. Some even place orbs with a 0 second warning to deliberately de-rezz your aircraft - I prefer the ban lines Sky junk is prolific in some areas, we have no right to tell people what to build. I do mention to people (in a friendly manner) that sky junk is a pain and forces us to dip under it (never above or around!) thus bothering folk on the ground sometimes. I've sucessfully elevated several skyboxes this way to a sensible height. Also bits of wall and cars hovering in the air are always worth mentioning as many people forget they left them there and are glad to get rid of them to get their prim count down.

You'll find that some aircraft behave more like toys than others. I fly helicopters a lot and find some are basic because they're designed for enjoyment and roleplay without needing to train. You let go of the controls they stop in the air. Others behave much more dynamically and if you release the controls you crash. My favourite helos right now are 'Spijkers and Wingtips' (search marketplace for it) or go to Honah Lee Trudeau secondlife://Honah%20Lee%20Trudeau/116/144 they also cross sim borders far far better than some as they don't do crazy upside down stuff when you cross over. If you go to hollywood airport and look around you'll find a Ban Line and Parcel HUD, which acts like a radar showing you which parcels are how full, which have ban lines and when you're above the ban lines, etc. With this you can cross the mainland without drama. This really is the magic tool of most 'serious' SL pilots. Some people do hire pilots too for jobs like weddings, birthday parties and so on. Which is fair enough as an elegant take-off or landing takes time to master. As for cars and bikes, yes I have them but never took to it. What I have heard though is that some of the sailboats here have very detailed scripting and handle quite realistically. Must be fairly good as there are regular yacht races around Nautilus and the Blake Sea area.