I'm new and so totally lost

I've been reading a lot but I've confused myself now. I'm scared to do anything in the game now cause I don't wanna get a bill at the end of the month telling me I owe 3k. I see stuff in the game that ya right click and select buy and the prices say like.... L$4....then I ran into stuff that had prices like this.... $200..and then instead of buy option it was pay option. I also wanna learn to make animations and such. But, what programs do I need. I read that poser ya need for animations. But, what if I wanna make my own custom wings. What do I need to make that. I guess what I wanna is, to anyone that does makes any custom things. What programs are you using. Whats the procedures. Gah I'm so lost. *panics* Sorry if these questions have already been asked before. I don't know what exactly I'm looking for in order to find my answers. If ya have the links to places that answer these questions. That would be so much help.

Hello Arzada,

Welcome to your Second Life! The SL world can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it's a friendly place filled with many things to do and see.

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1. L$ Money: think of this as "play money". It has no direct correlation with your US$ monthly bill with Linden Labs. You have a L$ balance of cash, shown in the upper right-hand corner of your screen, that you can spend inworld at anytime. Once you have spent all of your cash, that's it, you can't spend anymore. This L$ doesn't cost you anything and spending it doesn't raise your monthly US$ bill to Linden Labs.
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2. Getting more L$: each week, everyone gets a L$ stipend or grant on Tuesday morning. The amount depends on what US$ monthly Account you have with Linden Lab (US$50 each week given to One-Time-Payment US$10 Basic Accounts, US$500 given to Premium Accounts) and what your ratings are compared to everyone else (your L$ bonus each week). You can also get more L$ by selling your own objects/textures/clothes/vehicles, by selling your artistic/programming/social/organizational services to others (i.e. people pay you L$ money), attending various events that have L$ cash prizes or giveaways. You can also BUY L$ on the open market in exchange for US$ at http://www.gamingopenmarket.com, or buy them from a company called IGE at http://www.ige.com
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3. Spending L$ Money: Some objects have a pie menu called "Buy" and some have a pie menu called "Pay". They are more or less the same.

"Buy" simply means that you are either buying the object you see before you or are buying the contents of the object. When you select "Buy", the system pops up a box showing the items that you are purchasing, their permissions, etc. This is the automated selling system in SL that requires no "scripting" or "programming" to implement.

"Pay" is reserved for "vendors". Vendors are simply machines that the seller has programmed to do various things to sell you objects or services. Vendors allow an infinite number of possibilities, like setting up a car vendor that will accept varying payments depending on whether you want specific additional options, etc.

You can also directly "Pay" other avatars via their Profile or by directly right-clicking on someone and selecting "Pay".
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4. Tracking your L$ Spending/Income: You can always view detailed information about your payments, income, etc from the "Account History..." item from the "World" menu.

Visit the University of Second Life Library, currently hosted on the 5th floor of the MegaTower in BonnyDoon. The USL Library has lots of free scripts, textures, sounds, objects, tutorials, and informational notecards to get you started in Second Life.

BonnyDoon(232,202)

Photoshop is good for customization, but the animation, might have to be poser. the buy feature and the pay feature are interchangeable. it's all Lindens, as long as you have 'em, it won't cost you any extra. Just be careful with purchasing land

Yup, like Hank said if it's got the "$L" (letter 'L' next to the money symbol) there then it's all in-game money and you're not spending real money. So spend spend spend, LOL! Although, from one newb to another after you buy stuff you may have a hard time finding the stuff in your invantory that you just bought....sometimes they will be in the Objects folder depending on what kind of item, or just in it's own folder somewhere else....it can get confusing, or at least it is for somebody like me that tends to get flustered real quick.

Don't feel bad! I'm still pretty new myself and I'm just now starting to get comfortable with everything. On the up side, more often than not people tend to be nice and willing to offer you advice and help when needed so don't be afraid to ask. And, if you run into someone that is rude or mean (and you will, people are people, after all) then move on and find sombody that is nice The welcome areas are a good place to start if you have a bunch of questions.

As far as making stuff, I haven't quite tried that yet. I've got Photoshop skills and would like to try my hand at making clothes but at this point I'm enjoying buying the really cool stuff that everyone else has been making. I usually spend most of my weekly money in the first day or two and scrape by until next payday. I need to start attending events or get a job to make more $L's

*calms down and slowly starts stepping into second life* thank you very much. I'm still a little edgey but, hopefully I can learn something or build something to sell. Would like to build those custom wings though. The wings I've seen though have been still objects. Is it even possible to make wings that actually flap or move or something? Anyone have some that I can see?

Except, it should be added, buying Land CAN cost you reall US dollars. You should read up on the monthly charges for Land use before you buy any land.

No other activity or purchase changes what you owe Linden Labs. You are charged in points (Linden dollars) for uploads, not in real money.

awww. Gonna have to come up with some neat stuff to sell and raise the money I need so that I can uploads lotta stuff.

Buy vs. Pay...

Think of Buy like using a credit card. The computer charges your account the right amount every time. Pay is more like pulling cash out of your wallet. You tell it what amount to pay, which should be the same amount that the item costs. Most vendors will even give you change if you over pay.

good point, Milo, the analogy is correct. Yes, I did mention land earlier, it's like crack, the first one is free

Welcome to Second Life Arzada.

Our group, Awakening Avatars, has a folder full of practical New Member Note Cards that offer many helpful SL tips.

If interested click on the link below or IM me inWorld.

A warm welcome to Second Life, Arzada. You'll learn by doing, and sometimes, the thrill of being uncomfortable can actually be a good thing, I find. Just take it at your own pace, follow the instructions of the sage ones as posted, and enjoy each day of your Second Life.

Welcome to SL! People here have given you a lot of great suggestions.

We don't use any outside programs to build and script things. So, you could build your wings from within SL and then script them to flap from within SL. If you want to put a custom texture on those wings, you'll need to use something like Adobe Photoshop, MS Paint, etc to create a texture, and then upload it to SL and apply it to the wings. I HIGHLY recommend taking Building classes, and maybe even scripting classes.

Remember, if you can't figure out/don't want to figure out/etc how to build something, you can always buy it from another user!

Also, something to point out...if you ever need help in-world, another great resource (beside forums) is Live Help! Just click the Help menu at the top, and go down to "Live Help...". It'll open up an IM with all the available Live Help members. Live Help members are regular users (like myself) and Linden staffers who are able to answer your questions. If needed, they can teleport to your location.

*stares at responses* I'm liking this place already.

Just out of curiosity, how does Arzada have a lowercase last name?

Welcome, by the way

Cristiano, since the forum upgrade, new members have had weird forum issues...they all say Guest Member, not Registered....they have lowercase names...it's weird. I've been meaning to ask a Linden to look into it.

One of the side effects of the top forum page listing thread titles and last posters, is that you get humorous little things like this:





Arzada, one of THE most important classes to attend is Land Ownership 101 - BEFORE you buy any land. It can save you from making terrible mistakes. I'm about to go schedule some right now....

Nah, it's more like crisps/chips.

"You can never have only one..."