Trinity Blakewell

Glad you're back and healthy now, @Patch Linden

I think the idea about thoroughly documenting the build is a really good one. It helps with closure, and is an acknolodgement/memorial to your creative endeavor in furnishing the home. Personally, I've only had one LH most of the time. I had gotten one under an alt in a couple of situations - first, when certain home types were difficult to acquire, and second, to do a seasonal/holiday build when my main LH was not an appropriate style. For example, last Halloween I wanted to do a prepper/alien invasion theme and my LH was a Newbrooke. I got a Log Cabin for a month using an alt. What prevents me from acquiring more homes? The following is my personal viewpoint... First, time. I have a full time job and a full life. I need to budget my hours in SL. Second, money. And undergirding both of those is core worldview/beliefs. While leisure and rest, as well as creative outlets, are important on the life pie chart, they need to occupy only an appropriate slice. When that slice becomes too big, other areas of life suffer.

Ah. I've made a few edits and here is the current face shape, along with that skin. I think going closer to mid-range in the skin tones helps. In Velour terms, I'm talking Rose Kiss. I've got bodies that are lighter - Porcelain, Valley, Snow in Legacy and all those plus Icy and Dracula in Maitreya. The designers have more difficulty getting dimensionality in the lighter tones. Ironically, I think Dracula tends to look more dimensional than Icy and Snow. EEP settings can help a little too. Here you see the Elsa NF Peach on the head and Velour Porcelain on the body. Yeah, the lips need more work for me too.

@caraledevigne, is that still the Elsa skin? Which shade?

Has anyone else had issues with Raven having a very pointed chin? I've been trying everything I can think of in the sliders to create a more round face with it.

I remember one of the one-story models possibly having a u-shape? They could likely use that whole footprint (the rectangle) for a two-story model. They could also do a full two-story based on the Winchester footprint.

But...but..but...there were a lot of add ons for the traditionals that increased the footprint. I don't remember a single one I used that had trees poking into it.

Houseboats were gone most of the weekend. I found a nice location today, but it was an abandon from an older area.

***Bangs Head Against Wall*** Found a houseboat parcel I really liked. Noticed today that the FPS had dropped dramatically...so I went searching for possible reasons. Guess what? One of my neighbors has like a DOZEN CasperVend dropboxes in their houseboat! Yes, I've reported and derendered.

FAGA has moved to a different kind of subscriber group. You click on the sign when you get there.It doesn't fill up an SL Group slot. @EmmaAshton - the Velour gift was a bunch of free Venus skins (muscular version only - Rose Kiss, Frost, Amber and Brownie). Unfortunately they did not include male skins in this year's gift. I wonder why they didn't include Valley...it seems to be the most popular of their new colors. On the other hand, Rose Kiss is likely one of the most popular shades overall with Velour.

LOL, yes to this. I am on freebie overload, between about 10 Advent Calendars, Cosmopolitan's Christmas Tree, Shop and Hop, and now this. Have to get my inventory back under control again!

I'm doing about 10 -12 Advent Calendars this year, mostly fashion and home furnishings. Here's some ratings and reviews on some of the fashion ones. I'll try and post a few more later. Note that the brands that are giving out a mix of older and newer items are all over the board with body support. While most items are in Maitreya and Legacy sizes, support of other bodies will vary. Blackstone - free, group not required. Keeping about 50 -60% of total gifts. It's a mix of mostly older and some newer items, most are not. up to recent quality. The gown in the center is an exception, it has a great use of materials WellMade - group required. Keeping: about 50%- 60%. The big catch here is basically everything is either Christmas themed or predominantly red, with the exception of the blue dress on left. So, while many of the gifts are fairly nice, I'm bundling them up in a Christmas archive after the season. Glitz - group required, previous days items on sale for $L25. Keeping most of them, but let's face it, I won't have much opportunity to wear. Glitz is known primarily for lingerie, sexy dresses and evening wear, and you'll get a representation of all these in their gifts.

But EvoX kind of changed things as far as mesh heads and skins. EvoX skins can't be used on heads that don't include EvoX mapping. Right now, that's the dominant skin type supported by designers.

I wonder if the priority of updated releases is based on feedback about shortcomings with the home styles. For example, the traditionals were small, and had small rooms (it created such a big market for add-ons!). After creating open floor plan options for the Chalets and Sakura, LL realized that the traditional florplans could benefit from the same approach. Houseboats were also on the small side, and perhaps as the Stilts and Newbrookes were being designed, someone had the idea of adding houseboats that were more "house-like" and inspired by those designs. With Victorians, being small isn't an issue. Even the one-story design is large compared to one-story traditionals. And the two story models are pretty spacious. Not many add ons are available for the Vics that increase living space...it simply is not needed. I can't see them benefiting from an open floor plan as much as the traditionals did, either. I could see them adding one or two designs to the Log Cabins, and to the Stilts. The log cabins because it might be nice to have more variety, and the Stilts could use a larger model or two.

I think it's the new norm at some events, and not just the ones mentioned above.I've said before, I don't mind at all people using pre-made meshes (full perm) for their designs, as long as they do quality texturing. Many of the vendors at those events just plop a color (usually bright) on the mesh, and don't bother with any detail in the texturing. I don't get why people would find that appealing, but apparently some of these vendors are making enough money to stick around.

You can, of course, build your own add-ons, but if you're not experienced with building mesh, it's likely going to add up in the Land Impact pretty quickly!

If it's something I don't like personally, and in my line of sight, that's what Firestorm Derender is for. I personally go in at each location, do an area search, and derender problematic stuff (visually unappealing and/or highly scripted) and then block plus derender for tv's, radios, musical instruments, jukeboxes, etc. But occasionally, there are things that really need to be AR'ed. CasperVend Terminals (I've come across that multiple times!), excessive numbers of breedables (ditto), etc.

Right - that's why I went back to houseboats.

So, I've been trying to get one of the newer houseboats, this weekend and today. Just getting discards in older regions. Really, all but the latest (where I'm stuck till tomorrow) have been decent locations. This is the first one that is the basic "slot" layout with houseboats very close on the right and left. One thing I had forgotten is just how blatant many of the houseboat owners are about violating covenant and encroaching on their neighbors. I have already AR'ed three, in three different regions. Obnoxious, tall border images Structure encroaching on my parcel A Caspervend Terminal

OK, I see one thing about this body that I kind of like --- the curvy legs. But I think it's still way too exaggerated. And those little stick arms!

Interesting. I had an extended amount of time this morning where I was not able to teleport back to my linden home (goes to check to be sure everything's there)

That's a cute sim, and I'm glad they brought it back this year. It's a little difficult to manuver, since the stores are really small, the doors are closed, and the snowfall gets in the way of selecting and zooming in.

Naria Panther has a video on YouTube today. She points out that it's likely that people who like Kupra and just want...more body...will likely love it.

Tweaked the body shape a little...here's a more mature look.

My latest look