Custom Avatars, First Land, Joints

Hi there, just a few questions from a 2nd life newb

Custom avatars; I want to make one! I was told that you cannot modify the 'base' avatar of a man or a woman, only attach things to body parts - is this true (or can you make an avatar from scratch)? If this is the case, I was planning on playing with the shape to reduce the head to a small blob, then attaching a new one.. is this common practise?

First land; I have a premium membership, and want to 'claim' my 512sq.m. land.. whats the best/most common way to do this? When I go ,'Find', 'Land Sales', the land is (obviously) for sale -- do I still have to pay for the land in the first place (one-off)?

Joints - playing with some prims, I can't seem to make a 'chain' of joins - e.g. three spheres in a row, each joined to the next to form a sort of 'string'. The second join just doesn't work. I was using point-to-point joins, is this correct?

Ok, phew, I think that's enough!
Any help is, of course, greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

The base avatar is always generally human in shape, but you can easily make wild modifications to your avatar. Right-click the avatar, choose "Appearance". If you're interested in non-human avatars, then yes, you will have to attach prims. You can see examples of some excellent non-human avs in Luskwood (just northeast of the Ahern welcome area).



YOu're on the right track. You have to search for "First Land". Yes, it will cost you to buy it: I *believe* it's L$1 per square meter.

Note: Once you have your first land, hold onto it, even if someone offers you a "deal". There are unscrupulous players who like to cheat new players out of this land for far below market price. Remember, you can only buy the cheap "First Land" once. Any land you buy after that will have to be at market prices.



Joints are extremely limited in their use. I've been in SL for over a year now, and have yet to need one. I don't think you can use joints to do what you want here. Although it's possible to make a chain out of prims, it tends to bog down the physics engine, and at other times, it may just fly apart. This is why you won't see many free-swinging chains in SL.

Hope that helps.

Yes, First Land is 1L$/m². There's a "First Land" option in the Search list, when you go to Find > Land in-world, so choose this option and only go visit the lands you see in the list.

My advice on this, really, would be to grab it, experiment with building etc on it, and later on, if you wish to expand, you can always either 1) grab nearby land (if you chose in a sim where there's lot to sale around), or 2) sell it and move somewhere else. But don't be too trigger-happy with selling it, hehe. First Land is a good opportunity to place your builds etc

SL joints are essentially useless.

However Tokin' Joints are available for a mere L$25 for a box of 5 in both my stall in Centre Ville Market, and at Tribal Drums. They're not nearly as good for making swinging prims, but at least they work, and they're more fun than you'll find anywhere else at that price.



- Ace