Caledonia on Mars??????

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/12/blue-mars-opens.html

Ok . . . hmmm.

Thoughts?

(Des, you HAVE read the Martian Chronicles, right? The inhabitants only SEEM friendly.)

Caledonia, Caledonia. What makes your big head so hard?

Maybe this will make Blue Mars suck less.

/me goes to check it out.

ETA: after I download a 392MB patch.

In any event, they have a class act kicking it off with Desmond, all the best of luck to him.

Blue Mars just had a major update.

Some of the changes here:

http://rock-vacirca.blogspot.com

Rock

bag
cat
out

Jeez you're quick. When I saw this thread in the list the first thing I thought of was to post this...but you already had.

That's what you get for being a deer in the headlights.

Nice to know someone else gets the reference.

Welcome to Caledonia:



Caledonia Shops:



A jog through scenic Caledonia:



More Caledonia Shops:



Oh look, Blue Mars haz Twitter. Do you see the future of SL?



Larger images here if you're interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30680137@N05/sets/72157622897130887/

I just got back from the "New" Caledonia. How the hell do you rotate or whatever the camera view? All I could do was turn in place, but with a 3rd person view. Also not being able to fly is a pain. I ran up and down the streets lol.

Oh Des, so many questions . . . where are you?

Will Oxbridge have a "branch" on BM? Will it be involved in newbie integration, as it is in SL? Is the Caledon Library system (led of course by the ever-dapper JJ Drinkwater) opening a branch? What if any connection and/or collaboration will there be between the motherland and the colony? What sorts of content are imagined for the new BM Caledonia.

And, of course . . . why?????

http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=2647134&postcount=14

.

The pioneering spirit, eh? That sense of wonder from something new?

Ok. Cool.

It's like a matryoshka doll. Blue Mars is a shell waiting for content. Open it up and you find Caledonia, another shell waiting for content.

It's a bunch of those Caledonia Shops, and a few other buildings which are either unfinished placeholders, or just for show. They're nothing but boxes with a picture of a building on them.

/me logs off and waits for the next "major update".

Well, I was going to check out BM anyway at some point. This was just the catalyst to actually do so.

Here we go . . . Wheeeee!

ETA: Wonder if there is room for a slightly shopworn feminist activist in the New World?

You'll at least be able to escape the duct tape there.

Apparently not. I can't get the damned thing to install . . .

Check your firewall, and (shudder) disable anti-virus during install.

I was able to install with SL running in the background, and Firefox open.

Vista 64 premium, AVG Anti-Virus

Long review here:

/327/9e/355819/2.html#post2647206


My short version as a city developer for blue mars and an ex software tester in real life is this release moves it from "pre-alpha" to "alpha" software. CEO publicity speak aside, the actual version number went from 0.56 to 0.65, and I think that is an accurate statement of where it is. It has moved forward, but still has a long way to go before being "ready".

Probably the biggest news is that we can now start to upload content, and the game currency is about to go live. Much of the player-side interface (chat, movement, camera control, avatar customization) still has a long way to go.

You can say that again. After you've been in SL, the movement and camera controls in Blue Mars are hard to live with.

One more time... Can you pan or rotate the damned camera?

Yes, I got it to work the second time around, thanks, despite a warning from AVG about Trojan in the programme.

/me rolls up her sleeves . . .

Hold right mouse button & move mouse to pan and tilt camera

TY Daniel

Once more unto the breach. So much to learn over there.

Hmm, just got back. Very pretty, but (obviously) needs a LOT of development. And the UI pretty much sucks.

Interesting, though. I'll stick with it, and see what happens.

(The thing that was most pissing me off, weirdly, was not being able to make my avi look like my SL me . . . It's a funny thing, identity.)

One other thought about Caledonia, which I very much hope will be taken in the helpful and friendly spirit in which it is intended.

It is very very pretty: nicely laid out, with lots of open spaces, and attractive architecture.

But frankly it lacks character: to me, it looks like any other small Victorian-era town in North America. You can't shake a hockey stick in my part of the world without it hitting a place that looks like this. In fact, given the absence of any of the inconveniences of modern life here . . . mud, roadways, trash, panhandlers . . . it even looks a little Stepford Wives-ish. I kept wanting to look for the pinafore in my inventory . . .

I know that this is in its early days yet, and I'm sure that it will develop greatly as time goes on. But I do think it needs something other than pretty prospects and nice stores. There is no "edge" to it. It's the kind of place I might drive to for a day, stay over at in a charming little B&B, and leave without many regrets or backward glances the next day.