Category: Reviews

For me, one of the somewhat difficult aspects in writing about regions in Second Life is how to deal with those locations that offer a mix of public spaces and private residences.

I say this because while many of these regions try to strike a balance between public / private, there is always a risk that I’m encouraging a degree of possible trespass / invasion of people’s personal space by suggesting people go and visit. As someone who appreciates her own home spaces and the retreat they offer, I’m possibly being overly sensitive in this, but it is something I can’t shake. There’s also the fact that there are regions that have a bias towards rentals that makes writing about their public spaces difficult, simply because of the volume of homes and the limitations they place on exploration and discovery.

Such is not the case with Echo Ridge, a Homestead region that forms a part of Elvira Kytori’s White Dunes Estate, some of which I have covered in the past in these travelogue pieces.

What drew me to Echo Ridge is its layout and current wintery setting. Comprising a single large northern landmass, surrounded by high peaks that in turn encompass a scattering of smaller islands, it has only four rental properties within it. These are placed far enough apart within the setting that, with the intervening waters being frozen, allows for exploration without huge risk of trespass. Add the overall winter dressing the region has, and this layout also allows for numerous opportunities for photography and also for some winter pursuits such as sledding and skating.

The landing point for the setting is tucked into a southern island that offers plenty of room for wandering, places to sit and views across the rest of the region. From here it is easy to see the surrounding rental properties, and perform a quick check on parcel boundaries (right-click on the ground each house stands on) to spot the extent of private areas.

Beyond this, it is a simple matter of setting out to explore as you will; there are no set path other than the ice-coated waters, and they will lead you where you wish. The northern landmass additionally offers a snowy path that arcs around it, skirting one of the rental properties as it does so, to offer more views and opportunities for photography.

The magic here, however, is in the combination of small details, considered landscaping and the region’s EEP setting which is simply perfect. With the Sun hanging lower in the sky, it gives the region a very wintery feel that makes you want to done clothing that’s going to keep you warm as you wander across the snow or slide / skate over the ice.

These details come in many forms, but for me the most notable is the wildlife to be found right across the region – herons and egrets keeping a regal eye on all that is going on, Arctic foxes playing on the ice, deer wandering the snow, doves trying to work out what the slidey stuff they are skating on might be and sandpipers ignoring the snow as they prance the water’s edge looking for food under the cold white blanket while song birds await visitors to the region’s gazebo, so they might serenade them.

Really, there is not too much more to be said about Echo Ridge, simply because the region design speaks entirely for itself. It’s clear that a considerable amount of thought has gone into making this an attractive winter setting without going overboard on things. This makes the region beautifully understated when first seen, and increasingly attractive the longer one spends within it.

My thanks, as always, to Shawn Shakespeare for the point and landmark.

SLurl Details

• Echo Ridge (Amaria, rated Moderate)

Not long after the start of the year, I dropped in to Skrunda-2, the recreation of a Soviet-era town called “Skrunda-1” in Latvia. Designed by Titus Palmira, Sofie Janic and Megan Prumier, the region was a visit I very much enjoyed, so when Lien (Lien Lowe) dropped me the LM for the second iteration of the build – called Skrunda-3 -, I knew I’d have to drop back in and have a look around.

For those who have not visited previously, allow me to provide a little history to help frame this build: in the 1960s Russia established a radar facility some 5 kilometres from the Latvian regional centre of Skrunda as the home of two Hen House (Russian system name Destnr) first generation space surveillance / early warning radar systems. Its position within the Baltic state meant it was of major strategic importance to the Soviet military, having an uninterrupted view of airspace over the Western Hemisphere so it could “see” NATO / US space-based activities like missile launches. In fact, it was one of only two such facilities Russia constructed for this purpose in the 1960s, the other being near Murmansk, provide a view over the Arctic and north pole towards the United States.

Such was this strategic importance, that the radar station grew an entire town around it, supporting some 5,000 personnel and their families at its peak, offering them all the amenities they might expect: swimming pool, theatre, a school, and so on, and well as “Soviet typical” apartment blocks and more – including dedicated electrical power generation and water supply system, enabling it (again, in typical Soviet style) to be entirely self-contained.

As a military installation, Skrunda-1 served its purpose through to the 1980s, with the radar systems being upgraded over time, until the decision was made to use the site as the location for three state-of-the-art radar systems that would have been ready to start operations in the 1990s, however, the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that the new facilities were never completed. Instead, in the post-Soviet era, Russia reached an agreement with the Latvian authorities to continue to run the Destnr radars through until 1998, after which they had to dismantle them and withdraw from Lativa before the end of 1999 – which they did.

What was left behind became a ghost town, most of the buildings stripped bare but left standing, roads all in place – and something for the Latvian authorities to deal with. During the next 15 years, the town was left to nature’s ways, despite attempts to sell the land for redevelopment, around half of the land eventually being converted into a training ground for the Latvian national armed forces, although much of the deserted town still remains.

It is in this deserted, overgrown state that Skrunda-3 is offered – as was the case with Skrunda-2. However, whilst that version placed us fairly squarely within the residential parts of the town, this iteration offers more the the “business end” of the town and an iteration perhaps more rooted in the imagination of the builders. I say this because as far as I’m aware (and based on admittedly minimal research), Skrunda-1 was built far enough inland it does not have any form of deep water port,  however, Skrunda-3 features an significant dockland area. expanding on a waterfront area found within Skrunda-2.

This is something that gives the region a unique flavour unto itself, and presents a feature that makes up from the absence of any radar facilities the Russians took with them when they left and in all likelihood, a more interesting environment to explore than a load of military blockhouses. To further offer a sense of continuation from Skrunda-2, this build also has some of the apartment blocks tucked to one side, suggesting that were we to walk beyond them, we’d find ourselves within the previous iteration of the design.

As with Shrunda-2, there is a lot of small details to be found within this build that make it something of a work of art in itself, from the graffiti on walls to the placement of the abandoned vehicles to the suggestions that either the town was deserted in a manner that saw possessions left behind, or that it has at times been used as a home by the dispossessed.

Where the former is concerned, there is a sense of family and abandonment within buildings and rooms; with the latter, there is a sense of loneliness and a feeling that despite those hidden souls who may have been forced to live among the deserted buildings have formed a community: within an open space, a stage for live music has been put together, completed with a battered – but presumably still tuneful – upright piano. A short distance away, a warehouse building has been converted into an art gallery, displaying images captured from within Skrunda-2. And over all of this, someone has even managed to restore electrical power, adding a further twist to the idea that whilst abandoned, the town enjoys a secret life.

Payment of L$150 brings visitors rezzing rights, allowing for photographic props and poses to be used, adding to the photogenic nature for the setting, while the supplied sound scape helps to give further depth to explorations.

Standing with echoes of Skrunda-2, and sharing a common historical heritage, Skrunda-3 is nevertheless entirely unique in its presentation and design, making it a further ideal visitor for the Second Life traveller.

SLurl Details

• Skrunda-3 (Reynolds Hollow, rated General)

As I’ve mentioned recently, the end of 2021 is approaching, bringing with it (for the northern hemisphere at last) the cold of winter. For Second Life it means we’re in the time of year that sees outburst of snowy realms across Second Life. Over the last few days I’ve been hopping around a number either as a direct result of my own poking around or on the recommendation of friends. One of the latter is The Way of Life, a Homestead region held and designed by Dum (dumeric Asp), and which came to my attention by way of Shawn Shakespeare.

If sledding and snowboarding happen to be you thing, then this is a good place to visit – although these are far from the only reasons, as we’ll get to shortly. I mention both here and now because the landing point sits on the top of a towering table of almost sheer-side rock, running east-to west across the southern side of the region, dropping from its squared top by means of a snow-covered slope as it does so.

Bounded on three sides by Tuscan-style buildings, the fourth side of this mesa is formed by the aforementioned slope, which has at its lip both sled and snowboard rezzers. These allow the adventuresome to descend the slope via the piste, either directly or using the slalom markers and ski jump, to reach the region’s lowlands. For those not so enamoured of such pursuits, a path does descend the slope close to one of the sheer sides of the snowy mesa, marked by fir trees that stand to attention on either side of it, guarding the way.

At the foot of the slope, the region spreads itself northwards from a snow-dusted Zen garden, the land almost entirely flat in nature, cut through in part by a meandering stream that flows southwards from the large lake that sits to the north, its frozen surface yet offering a glimpse of water moving below, flowing towards the throat of the stream. Around the lake lay a trio of cabins, all of them apparently open to the public to enjoy as they explore, whilst a second stream winds inland from a larger, mountain-bound (and off-region) body of water to feed the lake, explaining the movement of water under its covering of ice.

Whilst somewhat transparent, the ice is nevertheless dense enough to allow for ice skating, and skate givers are dotted around the rough shoreline for this purpose, offering more opportunities for exercise and fun.

The lake, cabins and landscape are caught under a midnight sky (other EEP setting are available, consult your viewer for details 🙂 ), with bright pools of grass rising above the snow to vie with the lake for attention. One of these is fenced-off, the retreat for horses, straw bales stacked alongside the cabin nearest them in readiness to become a source of food. Elsewhere, the grass is home to lantern-bearing snow deer and white-furred wolves.

Under the lee of the region’s mesa lie the ruins of some ancient structure tucked tightly into the lee of the mesa, the wreck of a helicopter alongside. Quite how the latter got here is open to conjecture, but it offers one of many interesting backdrops for photography.

The three cabins within the setting are all lightly but comfortably furnished, Dum here being assisted by a number of friends in supplying décor elements and furnishings. Thus they make for welcome breaks from the cold outside – although there are a number of sit points to be found out under the stars and on porches for those who prefer. At the time of my visit (given it was only pre-US Thanksgiving November), Christmas / holiday decorations were at a minimum (some lights strung around a couple of the outdoor trees, and a tree and holly around the mantelpiece within one of the cabins), so the region sit as a nice wintertime setting rather than a holiday time setting, which frankly makes it all the more (to me) attractive place.

For those who wish to use the setting a s backdrop for avatar photography, rezzing is open to all, with auto-return set to 2 hours – but if you do put props out, please do remember to take them back to inventory rather than leaving to to auto-return to vacuum them up and drop them on you; that way the environment is left cluttered for other visitors.

Aside from the glowy grass (the wonder / irritant of Full Bright) that to me didn’t feel quite right, even allowing for the lanterns placed out (or carried by the snow deer presumably in an attempt to explain its glow, The Way of Life is an easy-to-explore, tranquil setting that offers a charming and cosy location that should not be overly stressful for most systems (the default environment gave me between a 30-45 FPS average with shadows enabled), while the snowboarding, sledding and skating give visitors the option to have a little fun whilst visiting.

My thanks, as always, to Shawn for the pointer and LM.

SLurl Details

• The Way of Life (Kingston, rated Adult)