Day: July 12, 2024

Second Life Combat User Group: July 11th, 2024 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Credit: Rider Linden

The following notes were taken from the Thursday, July 11th, 2024 Combat User Group meeting. They form a summary of the core items discussed and responded to by Lindens, and are not intended to be a full transcript.

Meeting Overview

  • The Combat User Group exists as a forum to discuss improvements to the Linden Lab Combat System or LLCS to better support combat in Second Life.
    • The core idea is to provide additional events and capabilities which sit on top of LLCS to provide combat creators with better tools with which to create better combat systems for their specific scenarios.
    • It is not intended to be a complete combat system in and of itself.
  • The meetings are the result of a proposal document on improving the native damage system in SL, written by Rider Linden, and which is the focus for both the meeting and any work arising from them.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
    • By Rider Linden, with the support of Kyle Linden.
    • On alternating Thursdays (rotating with the Content Creation User Group) at 13:00 SLT. Meeting dates are recorded in the Second Life Public Calendar and at this location.
    • In local chat.
  • Discussion topics, requests, etc., can be found on the SL Feedback Portal Combat Board.
  • Additional details are available via the SL wiki Combat2 page.

Work In Progress

  • The current iteration of server-side Combat 2.0 support is due to start deployment to the Bluesteel simulator RC on Wednesday, July 17th as a part of the Summer Fun simulator update.
    • Linden Lab has carried out some testing to ensure regions which do not have the Combat 2 updates will continue to operate the same way they do now.
    • Rider Linden is going to have the Concord and Lexington Combat regions moved to the Bluesteel RC so they are available for testing after deployment of the update.
    • Issues / feedback should be reported via the Support Portal Combat Board.

Feedback: How to Help New Users Discover Combat Opportunities in SL

Product Manager Kyle Linden asked for suggestions on the kinds of questions new residents might ask to in order to discover and participate in SL combat activities.  Reponses included:

  • The basic questions: can combat / war games be played in Second Life? What kinds of combat are available? How do I find out more about them? How do I enrol? Where can I obtain weapons?
    • It was suggested a themed welcome hub with a selection of free weapons and some portals to newbie friendly combat regions could help solve some of these questions.
    • A themed welcome Hub might allow Combat Communities to apply for Community Gateway status and direct users signing-up through them to the “Combat Welcome Hub”.
  • A further suggestion was to have Combat added as a Search category.
  • Kyle Linden indicated LL was considering some newcomer friendly enhancements to linden Combat regions: teleporting to a safe parcel within them, where users might find a basic free weapon kiosk or random weapon spawner.
    • In support of this, it was suggested Linden Combat regions include a basic “Combat Experience” to ensure all permissions requests are either suppressed and / or correctly set and ensuring things like gestures for reload, semi/burst/auto, etc., are available.
    • It was also suggested that all entering the regions be required to accept the Experience in order to exit the safe parcel and participate in combat within the Linden Combat regions.

In Brief

  • As the initial Combat 2 updates have reached deployment, Rider considering folding the combat User Group meetings into the Tuesday Simulator User Group meetings.
    • Given there is already a lot of cross-over between the two, this makes sense.
    • The suggestion was made to conclude the Combat User Group with a combat meet- up on the Lexington region once deployment has completed. This would be the meeting currently scheduled for Thursday, July 25th.
  • It’s been reported that there is issue in which a damage object (generated by llRezObjectWithParams) collides with a non-avatar in the same frame, it does not actually do damage (see: Damage objects should send damage to the nearest recipient).
    • This is seen as a collision order issue (e.g. damage is always delivered to the first thing it hits – so this is a question of which gets the collision first).
    • Rider is aware of the issue, but is unsure how best to address the problem.
  • Additional Canny tickets:
    • Damage Over Time  – this raises potential shortfalls with applying damage over time. This is currently marked as Under Review, pending consideration for future implementation.
    • Rezzing delays affect all scripts in an object – this is not limited to being a Combat-specific issue. This is being tracked, and it is hoped LL will have a fix available in a near-term simulator maintenance release.
    • Improved Mouselook for Combat and Immersion – this has been a topic of discussion at several combat meetings. As has been noted, this requires a pull request / code contribution from NiranV Dean (Black Dragon developer), who has stated he will endeavour to do so, once he has had the time to fine-tune and bug-fix the code some more.

Next Meetings

  • Simulator User Group: Tuesday, July 16th
  • Combat User Group: Thursday, July 25th (final group meeting)
    • This will be a Combat get-together in the Lexington combat region.
    • Those with weapons and HUDs they are willing to share are asked to bring them to the meet-up.

Balanced on a Cloud Edge in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cloud Edge II, July 2024 – click any image for full size

In January 2023, I visited Cloud Edge, a stunning mountain setting beautifully presented to give the impression of being so high up in a mountain range the very clouds lay beneath you (see: Walking a Cloud Edge in Second Life). Designed by Funky Banana, a region designer with a talent for producing attention-holding region designs and settings I’ve delighted in writing about in these pages, Cloud Edge was somewhat unique in presentation – as I noted back in 2023. So, when I learned he had opened a new iteration of the setting, I was off to pay it a visit.

Still occupying a Homestead region, albeit in a new location, Cloud Edge II continues the theme established in Cloud Edge,  offering a suggestion that this is a place within the same mountain range as the original, once again largely above the tree-line but where hardy growths of shrubs and krummholz cling to the otherwise barren rocks.

Cloud Edge II, July 2024

While there is a sense of continuation from the original Cloud Edge within this setting for those who visited the original, together with one or two familiar elements (notably the eagle – this time perched on a rock rather than riding the updraughts rising up from the valleys below – and the presence of a rope bridge), this is very much a place with an identity all its own. The clouds here are denser, forming a white sea which in places rises higher than the visible ridges as if to suggest there are other nearby domes and spines of rock lurking just beneath their blanket, and which might yet be revealed should the clouds deign to part.

That said, there is one dome visible to the south of the main ridge. It sits tantalisingly close yet forever out of reach of hikers (you can obviously fly over to it, but that’s cheating!), even if the clouds might encourage thoughts that just perhaps, beneath their fog-like embrace, a curtain of rock wide enough to traverse to reach the dome and its lonely tree might yet be found.

Cloud Edge II, July 2024

However, there is a visible hiking route to follow, one pointing north from the landing point at the south-eastern end of the ridge. It runs up to the foot of the blunt-nosed outcrop rising from the mid-point of the ridge to form a lone peak which seems to by supporting the trail as it sags away to lower ground to the south and north. Passing around the peak on its south side, the trail then drops back down and turns almost due north to rise via an narrow neck to a bulbous headland which extended a stubby nub of rock as if pointing to the (off-region) mountains.

This stubby finger of rock offers a dramatic look-out point with nothing but the blanket of thick cloud below, giving one the impression of standing on air with the enticing the mysteries of what lay beneath the veil on clouds calling up to you. But there is something else about this outcrop; it doesn’t take much of a rotation of the camera around it to realise that, with its bulbous mass sitting behind the stubby nub, it bears a suggestion of a terrapin sitting over white water, the nub of rock forming its head, the bulbous headland behind being its body. It an illusion heightened  by the right play of light across it, which can give the illusion of the nub bearing a beak and an eye staring out over the cloud tops.

Cloud Edge II, July 2024

This northern end of the main ridge is not the last place to explore; over to west side of the descent from the main peak is another shoulder of cliff dropping away into the clouds before a thumb of rock pokes itself back above the mist. Such is its proximity, there is a suggestion that it is perhaps joined to the main ridgeline somewhere below, just hidden from sight.

However, there is no need to risk a scramble down into the clouds in an attempt to find out. Instead, a rope bridge has been strung across the gap between the two formations. Whilst missing some boards roughly two-thirds of the way across, the bridge nevertheless spans the narrow gap to offer a want onto the plateau on its far side and the presence of the eagle, which appear to be ready (and without Norma Desmond’s madness) for its close-up shot by budding DeMilles paying it a visit 🙂 .

Cloud Edge II, July 2024

Once again, an outstanding and unique location (albeit one with an unusual soundscape, sounding is as does like waves breaking against the shore), which continues and extends the beauty of the original. It is also a setting which naturally lends itself to a range of potential environment settings as well as the Shared environment when it comes to photography (as I’ve admittedly done in some of the images above).

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