It’s easy to sail in the big waters, but sometimes you may get “landlocked”, when circumstances change. Still, there is hope for better always… 
Cruising in the waters of Dryland
Dryland is an impressive creation by Anita Witt. The place may remind you of The Aral Sea, where the irrigation project of Soviet Union turned a large lake into a desert and forced the local fishers to find a new profession. Dryland is open for the public.
Would you like to visit in an island with beaches, rocks, palm trees, cactuses and places to cuddle with a friend or meditate alone? Baja Norte is a really fabulous place to spend time and enjoy the nature there. The island was made by Jac Mornington, who opened it accessible to the public.
Baja Norte
Hummm, since it seems, that all the great bloggers participate to Strawberry Singh’s challenge, I decided to add my two cents too. So, here we go…
Looking for inspiration
Havna harbor in the northern part
It’s really refreshing to see, that there are places in Second Life, that grow, when so many other places shrink or vanish permanently. Second Norway is a great example of this. It’s not a long time ago, when it was merged to United Sailing Sims area near the Blake Sea. Now there are several new sims, that have some open waters available for sailing and several islands for living. Vik region has even its own race line, which can be used for sailing races. I would even say, that those new sims are the best part of Second Norway so far.
Traditional Scandinavian house in Havna
Rez your boat and head to Second Norway! Så, hva venter du på?!
When old and famous sims die, we all mourn for them, but wouldn’t it be better to celebrate, when new and good ones are born? Recently I visited in this fresh Medieval roleplaying sim, which is not far from ready. It’s worth visiting, even if you weren’t into roleplaying.
Kingdom of Ambrose
Would you like to meet a giant in SL? If you do, then you might like visiting in Colossus of Rhodes.
Feeling So Lightweight
Catamarans are interesting boats to sail, because they have their special tricks compared to keel boats. They are bit more challenging to master, but can offer you a really fast sporty ride. The Blake Sea felt so small place in a HepCat. When sailing on the northern shore of Satori continent, I got a hitchhiker aboard. She asked me about yacht clubs and sailing schools.
Trudeau HepCat in the Blake Sea
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
–William Arthur Ward
Cloud Party has been around for some time already and I decided to have a second look on it. Nowadays it’s possible to access it without a Facebook account, that makes it more desirable for many. Because I like virtual sailing, I was curious to see, if that would be possible in Cloud Party too.
Starting Island
So, I opened Cloud Party with a guest account and then tried to create a new account with my email address, but something got wrong. I was told, my email address is already registered. But what’s the password? Since I couldn’t find any “Forgot Password” link, I sent their support an email. The support responded next day and reseted my password. They also told, that Forgot Password link will be added soon.
Girlfriend candidate?
My first impression was, that the world is so clean and organized. In Cloud Party there is no such thing as mainland, that probably affects to that. All the “islands” float in a space. You can teleport between them using the navigation tools or just by clicking one of them floating in the sky in front of you.
Floating islands
Soon I started to look for water. How can it be found in a world, which consists of huge rocks floating in the air only? In Second Life every sim is surrounded by ocean, which connects all the islands together. But how are things arranged in Cloud Party, where universe is structured differently? I managed to find a club, which is surrounded by sea. There must be an option, which allows the islands to have water around them. Still, I would say, that Cloud Party water needs to improve, to meet the quality, people have got used in Second Life.
My next attempt was to find a driveable vehicle, even a sailboat, but couldn’t find any. Will Cloud Party offer an ocean for sailors in the future? Having a big rock with a tiny pond in center of it wouldn’t make many happy. The surrounding sea around the club island was probably more like a decoration. There is a planned feature called Meta-World Map coming. It promises to allow island owners to relocate their islands in the grid. You can imagine, that by placing several islands at some altitude and surrounding them with water, your might be able to offer a sailing experience. Let’s see, if the new feature will bring any solution to the problem.
Club Henmations with beach
Content creation is possible, but it’s all about mesh imports. This allows building high-quality items, but turns away many beginner content creators. Learning creating good-looking meshes on tools like Blender, is a long and tedious job. Cloud Party has its own marketplace already, but has only few items. I believe, that the situation will improve.
Marketplace
There are many features, which are planned to be added to Cloud Party martketplace, such as ratings and reviews, gift purchaces, limited run sales, direct transfers (user to user), customizable store pages for brands, asset upgrades, etc. Many of them are can be found in Second Life marketplace already.
Here are some of my feelings about Cloud Party in nutshell:
Strengths
Challenges
It should be remembered, that Cloud Party is a young place still and under constant development. It will take time, before it can reach the level of Second Life, but at least the beginning looks promising. Even if Cloud Party was a disappointment from sailor’s view point, the visit there was eye-opening and worth it.
Waiting for water
I decided to create something modern and minimalistic on Blender, something that wouldn’t take ages to get ready. Earlier I wasn’t so big fan of modern architecture, and still don’t like those discordant elements in many modern works (but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!). Modern architecture offers several advantages over the traditional one, because you can manage space, light and materials without any constraints enforced by style requirements. In other words, the feel of your house is completely under your control.
After outlining a house idea on paper, it was time to start concentrating on the implementation.
The cabin on building platform
I thought, the cabin would be quick to make, and that was partly true. It took only couple of evenings to get the mesh in shape, but UV mapping and textures were the more challenging part. Anyway, after several weeks, it was time put the hammer and saw back in the toolbox and sit down to evaluate the result.
The entrance
The house contains only one script, which is included in the both mesh doors. It works inside a link set and doesn’t expect any special tricks with door, like making half of it invisible.
What else could be said? I’m happy, it’s ready finally. If you like to view it in-world, you are welcome to visit me and have a tour. The land impact of the cabin is 26.
Inside
