It’s been a while! Botanical/Straylight News

First off, a sincere apology for those who read this blog. RL issues had been making it difficult to keep up with everything in the Botanical/Straylight universe, so let me get started in getting everyone up to date!

A Whole New Sim!

Just when I thought I was getting Straylight wrapped up, I had to go and get a new sim, and now everything is up in the air again!

Since becoming one of the most popular places to visit in Second Life, I’ve been feeling a lot of pressure to on two fronts:

• Keep Straylight a nature sim to be enjoyed visually
• Maintain enough room for Botanical, which makes maintaining Straylight possible.

There are a few ways to go about this, in my opinion. I can make individual trees and plants for sale no matter where you are in the sim. I could move the store section up in the air, providing more room to visually browse, and perhaps add teleport points from areas of interest on the ground to the corresponding store in the sky. I can add store sections to each of the major themes in Straylight, perhaps tucked out of the way, but in visually identifiable areas. I’m more likely in my mind to go with the last idea, mainly because I make Straylight as a place of “natural” beauty, and even as people shop, I want that beauty to be evident. I central store level (kind of what I have going on with the center island) IS ideal, but I only have so much space. I’m thinking that specific themed store areas with teleports and paths for moving around might be the best answer for the time being. This lets me also expand my current themes more.

There are only so many things you can pack in one spot, however, and this is where my latest purchase comes in. Wintermute. (For people who are mystified about how I name my sims, I would like to invite you to read the work of William Gibson.) Wintermute will be an expansion of the nature themes that I have started in Straylight, and perhaps break into a little more fantastical bend. Botanical will be spread out across BOTH sims, from a central location to outlying shopping/exploration areas. I wouldn’t expect Wintermute to be opening to the public any time soon, as the addition of more landspace has also forced a revision of some of my ideas for Straylight. Two sims, one store, many different worlds to explore and take home with you. That is my dream and goal for botanical and Straylight/Wintermute.

 

New Releases for 2007-11-21! Fir Trees!

Hello everyone! I’m back again! 10 days after I said I would lock myself in my room and make new trees, I return bearing gifts! Well… at least the kinds of trees that you may find gifts UNDER.

BOTANICAL UPDATES!
1. Fir Trees! After a lot of cursing, uploading, additional cursing and the occassional binge on a certain energy drink that “gives you wings”, I am proud to present a line of green fir trees that I am happy to call Botanical’s. I think you will find these very singular looking and beautiful. That might actually be “quadingular” (grammar students, please do not lynch me!) as they come in 4 sizes: Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large! Sold as Mod/Trans, you can purchase singles or a pack of all 4. Prices start at L$95… yea!

2. Ok… make that “octingular”, re-read the 1st announcement and replace “Green” with “Snowy”. Yep! The same fir trees I just released have snow frosted brothers and sisters!

You can find the fir trees front and center in the Botanical store (on the middle island of the Straylight sim) or, if you explore, you’ll see their new home in the snowy north eastern section of the sim. Sorry, you’ll have to fly there for right now. We have construction workers (points at self) working on paths to the new areas.

In case you haven’t noticed, the center island store is getting pretty tight (as in “crowded”) As I keep making things to bring Straylight closer to my vision, and make those items available to *everyone* that wants to take a little bit of Straylight home with them, I have to keep pushing out the boundries of the island store. It doesn’t take a scientist (and heck… I’m not even a botanist!) to realise that something has to happen, and soon. You’ve all seen the massive tree in the dead center of the sim, and some of you may have wondered at it’s name… the “Telehub Tree”. That tree was planted a while back when I realized that I would have to have a new way to let people shop, while still enjoying the beauty of Straylight.

Very soon, the TP area of Straylight will be remapped to the middle of the Sim, and you’ll REALLY get a shopping adventure. The main map of Straylight is set up for various “themes” (I’m a theme builder, sorry… it’s just how I roll) Each theme is mapped to a particular section of the Straylight sim, and very soon, there will be a vendor board in each section, selling the items you find in that particular section. I am starting this with the Winter theme, by making the new firs available at the top of the mountain, as well as (for the time being) the center of the island.

Teleports will be made available (via the Telehub tree) for those who know exactly where they want to go, or you can explore the island and pick out things you like. The vendors will only be in one area of each theme, so as not to clutter up the beauty of Straylight, and make things a little more convenient for everyone.

STRAYLIGHT UPDATES!
It’s time to skate! If you’ve been up to the snowy peaks of Straylight, you’ll have seen our own little ice pond! I’ve added a Moopf skate vendor to get the fun started Now that I’m back in world again, look for some more nice diversions in that section of the sim.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/straylight/
11 new members and 83 new photos in 10 days for the Straylight Flickr group, bringing us to 184 members and 1246 photos. The re-release of Windlight on the First Look SL client has spawned an amazing array of gorgeous new additions to the family. Thanks everyone and join me in saying “Welcome!” to our new members!

http://www.b-places.com/top_locations.aspx
The SL community at large is still voting and still pushing Straylight towards the top of all the places to be in Second Life!
10 days has brought 60 more votes, for a total of 1306, placing us at #5!
There is a lot more coming to Straylight and I really hope I keep up with everyone’s expectations!

Straylight Botanical Update Group
614 Members! We’ll have our own Straylight Army before too long!

As you all know, the Straylight Botanical update group is NOT an SL group, and will not eat up your precious group slots. What you may *NOT* know is that this awesome piece of technology is called the “Subscribe-O-Matic”, created by MSo Lambert. A LOT of merchants have found out that you can get your word out a lot easier if you make it easier for people to hear that word. One click sign-ups, web administration, RSS feeds, the list goes on! Mistah Lambert has even made it easy for you to take the Subscribe-O-Matic for a test drive with a free 14 day trial. I believe in this system so much, I not only purchased it immediately after my own trial was up, I’m setting up an affiliate vendor to make it easy for you to start. Look for it right beside the Botanical Straylight update group sign.

That’s all for now! I have to go catch up on all my friends and shake off this energy drink buzz!

Are you already in Second Life? You can Visit Straylight now!

 

Morning comes to Straylight

A sight that I haven’t seen in my own sim… the sun as it peeks through the trees as morning arrives. I’m testing out some new sun beams with some SL sun features, so tell me what you think if you stop by Straylight. Some additional items.. the lamps around the island have been turned to timed mode, to help the traveler that uses region sun settings.

 

Fog rolls in…

Photo by Lyanis Sin

The voices of the birds hush as a cool wind blows from the seas over the hills. As the evening progresses a thick fog forms, blanketing the southwest corner of Straylight.

All is quiet within the mists, now. No singing of birds, no whisper of wind. Through the dampness, you may catch the hunched form of an old man, walking along the shrouded hills, a soft chuckle reaching your ears, as from a great distance.

The Second (St)Age of Straylight is beginning…

 

Welcome to Straylight!

Straylight serves as an Second Life nature reserve, park, testing ground for new landscaping techniques, and all around destination for residents of Second Life.

Since Straylight has opened, it regularly enjoys traffic that hovers around 10,000, and has been selected as a representative location for Second Life as part of a rotating image system when visitors go to the SL website.

Straylight also has a growing following on Flickr, with the ‘Postcards from Straylight‘ group. At the time of this writing, the group has been in existence for almost a month, has 79 members, and 375 photos.

Photo by Kean Kelly