Simploring 2021 (9) Cravone City

23 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I scrolled through scoop.it SL Destinations and came across Cravone City. The published picture of a big city caught my attention immediately. The entry led to a post from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: Cravone City” (in German) which I read before visiting.

Cravone City is built on a full moderate region, that is owned by a group, the Cravone Land group. The group founder is november grant-craven (November Sorbet). Cravone City was designed by Paradox (Paradox Ivory), who also created “Tokyo Street and Umi” (read here) and just lately “The Apartments” (read here).
Cravone City features quite some shops: Bad Unicorn, Scotch, Chuck Size, Resilience, Rossi, Animosity, Radix, HEVO, Shybird.

Cravone City: Bird eye view and orientation map

Zooming out you can see the concept of Cravone City: Syscrapers surround the sim, inside are just a few blocks on two to three different levels that are connected by stairs and streets. No matter where you are, you always see skyscrapers. The landing is at a train station, a train is just passing by. I haven’t seen before an endless train coming from and leaving into a tunnel in Second Life. That’s a great idea to liven up the scenery.

Impressions of Cravone City (1): Landing at the train station / the skating park

The town has a lot to offer beside all the stores. I first explored the area around the train station. Right next to it is a skating park with a shop for skaters nearby. I walked around the corner of the skater shop and … came to the red light district of Cravone City. I thought to myself – Why do I get here first?? Maybe because I was too lazy to change and didn’t wear my simploring clothes? Anyway, Cravone City has its own red light district. Close by is also a tattoo shop.

Impressions of Cravone City (2): Red light district / Row houses

I left the district and entered the next block. On both sides of the quite steep street are nice row houses with small balconies and fire escape stairs. These small row houses look like being protected landmarks from another century. And there are even a few rooms furnished inside. Have a look!

I continued my simploring tour and saw a nice tram, several shops, an Irish style pub “The Golden”, the Regent Hotel and a pizzeria. Everything fits together, seems as if it growed naturally over decades, new and old houses, modern and classic architecture, the old tram, the Irish pub and a modern sports car.

Impressions of Cravone City (3): Irish pub “The Golden” / the tram / Regent Hotel / Bad Unicorn shp and pizzeria

In a seperate part of the city is another shopping center with two anchor stores “Animosity” and “Hevo”. You reach it walking up stairs through garden terraces. Paradox added quite some green to the city. At this shopping mall is a nice hidden café where I took a break. Then I continued my tour and had a look into the billard bar.

Impressions of Cravone City (4): Shopping mall and café / Billard bar

From the bird eye view I had noticed a roof terrace with a pool. This part was also highlighted in Maddy’s blogpost. I tried to get up the roof but I didn’t find any way up. Hence I had to take advantage of SL’s features and used far sitting to get up. The roof terrace is a nice oasis admist this busy urban city. It is for sure an extraordinairy event location and I spoiled myelf with another break there. At least I was dressed accordingly for this place *winks*

Impressions of Cravone City (5): The roof terrace

Cravone City offers a lot of great backgrounds for pictures and there’s so much to discover, many little details be it some NPC’s (static non-player characters), the big bill boards, art on the walls of the houses, advertisements, small food stores and several more cafés – or the bakery with Paris baguettes next to the hotel. For sure I missed some furnished places and I also haven’t yet strolled through the stores.

Impressions of Cravone City (6)

Thank you Paradox (Paradox Ivory) for building Cravone City, thank you november grant-craven (November Sorbet) and who ever else is involved in this project. I do hope that the stores have enough inworld traffic so that Cravone City will stay available. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Cravone City
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cravone/41/85/29
flickr group for Cravone City
http://www.flickr.com/groups/14747982@N20
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: Cravone City”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/01/simtipp-cravone-city.html

Simploring 2020 (80) The Apartments

04 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Sunday, November 8th, I picked “The Apartments” from scoop.it SL Destinations. The entry led me to a post of Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: The Apartments” (in German) which I read before visiting myself.

The Apartments is built on a platform in the skies. Creator and owner is Paradox (Paradox Ivory). I saw Paradox’ sim “Tokyo Street and Umi” last year (read here). Tokyo Street was a big city installation and Umi was a Japanese village. And now she created “The Apartments” which is also somewhere in Japan, just in the future, yet it is no a scifi installation.

The Apartments – bird’s eye view

The Apartments is a quite smart installation of a big city, done with less than 5,000 prims. Zooming out you see the layout. A labyrinthine building extending over 2 floors surrounded by skyscarpers. Inside you feel like in a big Asian city. You enter the one building and get lost in hallways. The hallways are used as additional living space. At most entrance doors there’s stuff stored, be a bottle boxes, chairs, sofas, table football, garbage, a bike and many tools (amost a whole garage), etc.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (1) another bird’s eye view and around the landing point

You see a lot of cats. They occupy many chairs and couches and in particular the window benches. They seem to love seeing out of the window and watching the rain falling and all the raceways. From the windows you also see the traffic … flying cabs and flying police cars. If you have your sound turned on you often hear the sirens of the police cars.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (2) cats on window benches / in the gym

You will find almost everything within the labyrinth of hallways .. a fitness studio, a laundry, a sushi bar, lots of vending machines, parking, a gathering room and much more. There’s a lot of stuff to dicover and I’m sure I didn’t see everything.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (3) parking garage / hallways

There are also some fully furnished appartments that you can visit. They are packed with stuff, tiny appartments with large windows so that you are admist the city and have something to watch. The rain, the raceways and the traffic, the infrastructure and so many other things can be seen through the windows. For me it is one of the highlights of The Apartments that the city looks very busy.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (4) inside Apartments / public meeting point (lower left)

Appropos busy, during my visit there were a lot of other people visiting. Maddy wrote in his blog that The Apartments is listed in the SL desination guide and hence it gets a lot of traffic. The upside is that the hallways are not empty, the downside is that I had to wait with my pictures or that avatars ran into my picture when the textures had just cleared up.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (5) views outside into the city (left) / Sushi bar (right)

“Hallways, endless rain and cats lots and lots of cats” – The Apartments is a place you shouldn’t miss when you enjoy simploring (like I do). Thank you Paradox (Paradox Ivory) for this great place and for sharing it publicly. Well done!

Landmark to The Appartments
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cuscus/122/59/2060
Maddy Gynoid’s “Simtipp: The Apartments”
http://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2020/11/simtipp-apartments.html
The Appartments flickr-page
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2984011@N23/pool/

Simploring 2019 (42) Two sides of Japan – Tokyo Street and Umi

08 Apr 2019 2 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , ,

Lately I saw pictures of Tokyo Street on scoop.it SL Destinations several times and I read a bit more about it in some blogs. I learned that Tokyo Street is part of a (moderate) sim created by Paradox Ivory. It’s located on a seperate platform in 2.000m altitude. On the ground level of the same sim is a Japanese costal village named Umi.

Paradox Ivory says about herself that she’s a dreamer, a prim addict and a sim designer. In her picks I found a comment about Hinansho, a Japanese sim that I visited last year (see Simploring 2018 (98) Hinansho): “I love this Sim, its one that has inspired me since I first visted“.
And I found pick about SSOC, another sim that I have visited before (see Simploring 2017 (78) A Metropolis in Second Life): “Another Amazing Sim that helped inspire me before I even realized I wanted to create my own“

Impressions of Tokyo Street (1)

In the landmark profile Tokyo Street is described as follows: “As the sun goes down the streets come alive. Nothing sleeps in the city. Enjoy a walk through lantern lit streets or take in some tasty street food while you enjoy the unique atmosphere of this densly packed tiny Tokyo city.”
I started my simploring at Tokyo Street using the teleport to Subway Entrance NW.

Impressions of Tokyo Street (2)

It is an amazing place to visit. When you leave the subway station you enter a small street lit by lanterns, full of life, restaurants, shops and clubs. It really looks busy and it looks how I expect Japan to be (I never was there in RL). It is really packed full with details and ittook some time to load the textures but it was worth the time!
Once I left this area, I entered what a large town with skyscrapers, some smaller buildings which seemed to be leftovers from a long time ago. The city has everything, a police station, a train station, parks, a fair, many shops and restaurants and another area with small streets with a second subway station Entrance NE.

Impressions of Tokyo Street (3)

The city is really impressive and I took many pictures. I zoomed out to get an impressions of its size. It feel way bigger inside than it is actually. I love all the details. Many shops and buildings are furnishedand you can walk in and sit down. Tokyo Street is a further development of SSOC with a touch of Hinansho. Great!

Impressions of Umi (1)

I continued my simploring tour visiting Umi. What a contrast! And yet it is still Japan. Umi is a fisher village. It has two rows of houses arranged in a half circle. While one row nestles up against a huge hill, the second row faces the see and every house as sea view and most a pier for small boats. Again I enjoyed the many details. The houses are small, they are all furnished and every square inch is used (just as I picture Japan to be).

Impressions of Umi (2)

I explored almost every house, I just left out 4 houses that were marked as private residences. After visiting Tokyo Street I enjoyed the peacefulness of Umi. But there’s more. I dared to climb the hill, I enjoyed the view from the radio tower on the top ofthe hill and I disovered a nice fisherman hut at the other side of Umi.

Impressions of Umi (3)

My short visit to Japan was impressive. Having these 2 places with it’s connecting and opposing elements combined in one sim is really outstanding. I recommend that you switch on your sounds to hear the noise of Tokyo Street and the peace of Umi.

There’s so much to see, so many details to discover that time really flew by.
Thank you Paradox Ivory for sharing your sim with the public. I really enjoyed my visit to Japan.

Landmark to Tokyo Street (Subway Entrance NW)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dox/79/179/1998
Landmark to Umi
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dox/99/134/21

Simploring 2017 (101) – Fantasy Island and D o X Urben Gallery

31 Dec 2017 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

Unexpectedly I found some time for simploring on Christmas day. I decided to follow Inara Pey footsteps again and visited Fantasy Island. She wrote about it in her Living in a Modemworld blog “D 0 X: an Island Fantasy in Second Life“.

The landmark description read perfect for me and my plans for my free time: “Come and explore this Winter themed sim with a picturesque walk through the woods or just let the atmosphere lead you to one of the many spots to sit and relax. Happy Snapping! This sim is part of D o X Urben Gallery, opening January 7th 2018“

Fantasy Island Overview

Fantasy Island consists of 3 seperate and quite lonely islands. You land near to a cosy residential house. Next to the landing point is an information board and from here you can teleport to the gallery. I began my visit walking and exploring the first island. There’s just this one house. It looks very cosy inside, most probably also because of the Winter outside. Paradox Ivory, the owner and creator, managed to capture the Winter feeling and the nature really well. Walking around and exploring is just fun. You will find some deers roaming peacefully and you’ll find cosy places to sit and enjoy the view. The sim surround is selected perfectly and fits perfectly.

Impressions of Fantasy Island – around the landing point

To get on the other 2 islands of Fantasy Island you can rezz a row boat, which I did. On the second Island (the main island) is a modern wind mill and another house with a large and cosy outdoor patio. Here all is prepared for a dinner party. There are also menu cards on each place and it sound yummy (how fitting on Christmas!). Around the house you’ll find another larger outdoor place to sit and talk with several people. The nature on this 2nd island is simliar to the first and again you can find more cosy places and nice views.

Impressions of Fantasy Island – the main island

The third and smallest Island is not inhabited. There’s just the ruin of a lighthouse, but you can look at the other two islands from here.

More impressions of Fantasy Island

Fantasy Island is perfect for a walk in Winter, for enjoying Second Life and for taking great pictures. Before I ended my visit, I peeked into the gallery, that will be opened January 7th, 2018. It is called D o X Urben Gallery. And it is not Urban, but I still need to find out what “Urben” means. Everything is prepared already for the opening. I also found a board announcing the first exhibition “Expansum”.

D o X Urben Gallery, opening January 7th, 2018

Thank you Paradox Ivory for sharing your sim with the public. You provided a very relaxed hour to me. I enjoyed my visit and look forward to visit an exhibtion at the D o X Urben Gallery

Landmark to Fantasy Island
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Island%20Fantasy/89/188/22
Landmark to D o X Urben Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Island%20Fantasy/91/103/1092
Inara Pey’s blog “D 0 X: an Island Fantasy in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2017/12/16/d-0-x-an-island-fantasy-in-second-life/