Dark or Not, It's a Piece of Paradise

Dark Paradise has great prefabs for that special build


Back on the trail of great sims, I couldn't help but notice the great build that a neighbor had put up in my home in Winterfell. A quick peek beyond the wonderfully intricate textured facade took me to Darkling Tempura and Desari Deledda, who is putting together some furniture and artworks worthy of notice.

As you know, a shopkeeper who sets their creations into a lovely themed surrounding gains quick access to my paypal account. Desari and Darkling have made this happen at Dark Paradise. You can stroll along a lovely water feature, gaze at the intricate scrollwork on the columns, or be impressed by the huge Starax Statosky sculpture dominating the pool.


The furniture is well constructed, perfectly textured, and the poses built in worked fine for my friend and I. This is not always assured, since out heights differ greatly, so worthy of mention.



In addition, the prefab houses were marvelous, showing clean design and masterful texture work. As I said, any house that can capture my attention from a distance of 300m is worthy of my notice.


One critique, in investigating the story and review I came across the Dark Paradise website http://www.darkparadise.us which was rather dated in its information. More current info might have been nice, but may be available through regular client log in.

Regardless, Dark Paradise is well worth a visit.

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The Low-Hassle Castle -- And 200 More Prefabs

One thing I don't like about buying from vendors is the chance factor. You could be shelling out big money for a not-so-cleverly disguised remake of one of the founding Lindens' freebies, paying for a misspelled product, or in some cases, not even getting it. And while I'm on that last issue, I'd like to thank the item seller who "refunded" my money by running L$100 through my vendor -- and getting back 90% in commission immediately.



And the other thing I don't like about vendors: the ton of no-mod stuff out there. Come on, I know how to make a floating text script, so you don't have to hide it from me. And maybe I'd rather not have a no-mod Library texture spread across my purchase like an oil spill.


But on a more positive note, I came across designer Sara Sullivan's Mind's Eye Prefabs while looking for a good building or two to sell on Apez. I liked the cut of the Mounier's jib, even when all I could see was a single photo. And to paraphrase Victor Kiam, I liked the castle so much I built a business around it.


A lot of builds in SL are cavernous, boxy, and give you the impression you just paid a lot for three or four textured stiff prim sheets.



Not so with the Mounier.

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Now that's an arrow slit.

When Ms. Sullivan came by to rez the castle, I was amazed. At under 350 prims, I still had a LOT of prim space to play with on my rented 4096. And it was massive, too. No rinky-dink slap-togethers that looked more like plastic or plywood than solid, immovable stone.



Sara's architectural expertise matches that of my friend JC Anvil. She's loaded the castle with twists and turns, passages and towers, crenellations and chambers. Spiral staircases wind, lengthy corridors give the impression of luxurious, unhurried design, views from the side and central towers are magnificent. If you're put off by the puniness of a lot of builds that don't match the scale of RL builds, come by today and wander around for a while. The Mounier maximizes its roominess inside without giving up the solid walls you'd expect to rely on in medieval times. The ramparts and rooftops make for great tactical battles, and I've been inspired to modify my CGB script to allow realistic structural damage.

And for those of you who prefer a darker build, there is also the Ruxton Castle for sale in the heart of the castle. You can make as many copies as you like for just L$4000... less than a week's pay at my old job.

Flagons of mead, coming up.

There are a few very minor things I would improve on the Mounier. The railing and top door seem a little thin to me, the frail stained glass seems a mite out of place in this megalithic masterpiece, and a legion of hearty warriors ought to be able to sit at the table together in the dining hall. But the best thing about the Mounier Castle is that I can fix these things with just a texture here and there, rip out the dining table, drop in an archery contest, wine bar and banquet table, and my guests and I can enjoy the rest of what truly is a fine build.



To see the copiable/mod Mounier and Ruxton castles and 200 buildings from ~L$200 to L$120,000, come to Oliva's Homes and Mansions at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Graybar/196/221/31.

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Builder of Dreams: Second Life's Insky Jedburgh

About a month ago this reporter decided it was time to create a special home in Second Life, one that would meet my somewhat unorthodox needs. A good friend who knows my need for exploring the weird and wonderful sims of SL led me to a special place and a custom castle manufacturer named Insky Jedburgh, the Builder of Dreams.

Insky built a place called Fizzdrake Castle, which I explored last summer. Although it's not a commercial sim, it's certainly worthy of its own writeup. When I knew that I needed a medieval build to fit into the covenant of the sim I’d picked out for my own land I looked up Mr. Jedburgh and found his sales lot at Twilight Gates.

Any SL Master Builder is going to excel at picking and placing textures, and Insky is no exception to this rule. Inside and out, the textures are marvelous… rich designs well matched and fitted to the structural look and feel of the builds.


Textures worthy of a master builder

To make matters even better, you’d expect to pay much more for such lovely designs. I found the prices to be a very pleasant surprise, considering the quality of the builds and the ease of the interface. There’s a huge selection on the lot as well, to make sure you get the perfect building for your perfect need. I even saw a complete “village kit” with multiple buildings to set up the centerpiece to your own medieval sim.


Hello Sailor.... : )

Topping things off is Mr. Jedsburgh’s courtesy and helpfulness. I asked for a few special favors and he was spot on in helping me out. I’ve found a few stuffy sim owners in my time, but Insky is top notch and friendly to boot. I felt like an important man had taken his time to help my SL experience be truly special.

In short, if your tastes (or land covenant) lead you to a medieval build, you can’t go wrong at Twilight Gates with one of Insky’s designs.

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Fifty pounds of stuff in a five-pound bag: Second Life Merchant Times on the move, & collapsed posts

Hey all,

Looks like I'll finally getting rid of that albatross of a platform I have at the Second Life Merchant Times in Hawkins. Hopefully the layout inside my cool new store from Bleed Designs will be better-looking and you'll be able to see it soon.

Our vendor now gives out 80 -- count 'em, 80 -- freebies from Arcade Asylum. She's been kind enough to give them out through the Second Life Merchant Times with the agreement that they're not to be re-sold. So when you come by, please pick up an SLMT vendor if you would like to hand out some great freebies to your friends and customers! Our vendor is just 2 prims, but not only does it take people back to this page, but it also gives a "Friends of the Second Life Merchant Times" landmark box out to people. If you're good enough to put our 2-prim vendor on your land, we'll put your landmark in this box!

Some of you may be asking, "Why is that such a big deal?" I'll tell you. All of our vendors are updatable! That means when everyone else updates their vendors, they'll all start giving out your landmark every time someone clicks to visit http://slmt.blogspot.com/!

Just use the "SLMT In-World" link on the left to get your free updatable vendor with freebies!

COLLAPSIBLE POSTS UPDATE:

I've been wrangling with the site format for some time now, and trying to work in collapsible posts so that way people can see the most teasers on the front page.

It has been a nightmare. Put so much as one special bit of code in the regular section, and the whole thing goes haywire, reduces the print to 0px, and worse.

So, in order to allow the greatest number of pictures per post, to bring you the best visuals from SL, and to give you the best format for each blog entry, I am kicking collapsible posts out. I thank everyone who has read the blog no matter what the format, and would like you to know I will be tying pictures back in for maximum presentation.

Lionel Oliva

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