Exploring in Second Life

I have been in SL for a few months now and have "seen" many of the wonderful sims...Really enjoy places where there are hidden areas and forest-like places.. whether PG or Mature.. however.. I am running out of ways to find new places in SL. I search under the "ALL" tab with key words.. but it seems the same places come up on a search and more groups rather than places you can visit.. what am I doing wrong?? Exploring is a very big part of being in SL because there are so many resident-created areas.. Any suggestions on how to continue to find the most spectacular sims in SL to explore? Thanks

the best way i found was 'random map hopping'


bring up your big map


and click around at random




sometimes you poof into peoples house while they are naked tho





sometimes you don't

Naked ppl in SL - Never.....I don't believe it *wink - lol

I climb into my Huey and start flying, i usually will enconter as sim boundry or a security device tha will either dump me or freeze the ship and I bail out. Wherever I land , I wander.

I bougtht some roller skates and I skate along the roads. Wow there are some ugly builds out there but surprising and beautiful ones too.

Im 13 months old now, and I still havent really EXPLORED the map. I actually just started to explore with a group of mine in SL. We are walking (ALL THE TIME, NO FLYING), across the mainland, many MANY sims.
Weve already discovered tons of stuff. And we saw the most amazing thing ive ever seen in SL.. http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u230/Jokeir/Castle.jpg

I am lucky enough top live adjacent to a Linden protected corridor, or future highway. I enjoy the accasional walk along this route in either direction. To the south it leads to a huge lake 3 or 4 sims long and I've swum the length of that using my SLSwim 2.0 animation! Locally I explore by walking, running or swimming.

On a grander scale, I use a variation on the map hopping method. I zoom in close enough on an area to get a rough idea of what's there, and TP there. Also, when zoomed in, private islands, or some of them at any rate, show up.

I have also found that another version of the world map, which appears in details of auction land on this site, is zoomable and shows every island.

I only tend to fly for pleasure when exploring newly created landasses, and when I do that I put on my jetpack, crash helmet and flying suit!!!

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to post a reply so quickly! All of your suggestions are great ones! My partner in SL often gets upset because he bought a helicopter and he cannot fly it from sim to sim.. basically can't fly it anywhere!! But I have a AKK horse in SL and I usually can ride from area to area within the same sim without any difficulty..But it is a problem that they sell planes, boats, copters, etc and you can't just get in it and explore the greater SL.. isn't it??

Also, I tried to view that photobucket page that Joker Opus left me.. but unfortunately I copied and pasted the url and it says page not found. but thanks again for your efforts!

Keep 'em coming!!! I think maybe we all can learn from other's experiences about exploring!

Lorna, have a looksee .. http://www.gabrielguyer.com/slparksandrec/

Of all the ways to explore that i've tried, i've found boating the most satisfying. I grab a small boat and set her down on a river or somewhere and just go explore the smaller waterways of the bigger continents. Found some absolutely amazing stuff that way

SL has some wonderful places, but just like RL, the overwhelming majority of the place is strip malls, corporate headquarters, and suburbs. Random clicking or wandering can be fun, but it can also be an exhausting trek through other peoples low-prim housing units. The best ways I've found to explore are:

Go to Snapzilla: http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/ and spend some time looking through the snapshots. If you find a picture that looks promising, enter that poster's name into the search box. It's likely they have visited other interesting places. Caution - great places don't last forever in SL, so older pics may be of places that are now strip malls and low-prim housing.

Search Groups in SL for a group that matches your interests. If it's exploring, there are groups for that. Pull up the group list and open the profile of the group owner. Look at their picks for places to visit. You can find a lot of great places by looking at the picks of an avatar with similar interests.

Visit a blog from someone who gets a lot of tips for great places. One of the best is http://slnatalia.blogspot.com/. Ignore the fashion show and use the SLURLs - she visits a lot of great places.

Search in SL for keywords of things that interest you, such as forests, caves, volcanoes, city names, etc. This is a low-percentage approach though, as most of the hits will be strip malls and clubs .

Hope this gives you some good pointers. See you out there exploring!

Galena Qi

I consider random map hopping to be inappropriate for precisely that reason.

Sure, teleport hubs can reduce some of the problem, but not always. Jumping into an unknown place unannounced is like walking into the middle of a group of strangers having a conversation and disrupting it, even if briefly.

If you want to do something random, just pick random words, do searches, and then pick random places from the list. It's fair to assume that a place listed in the Places search either welcomes strangers or has their limitations mentioned in their description. Sure, it's more work, but it's also more courteous, and more likely to find places of interest.

Having insta-teleport capability has many plusses, but one serious downside is the difficulty of maintaining any sense of genuine geography. There is very little sense of place in SL. It always amazes me if I wander behind a store I visit regularly and stumble upon ANOTHER store I visit regularly, without ever realizing they had been so close together!

I also do the random-map hop thing, although I generally try to pick a spot a little away from other avatars to avoid invading someone's privacy.

The original mainland continent in the north offers some spectacular geography, and the builds are generally very tasteful, having developed the longest.

Coolest mode of transport for me is hover board (go by Abranimations and get one, they are free). Best experiences I've had exploring was hopping on the board, and sailing down the linden roads, to avoid ban lines, then veering off if I see something interesting.

Yep, me too. I just pick a spot on the map that's mostly grass...then get up and fly to explore areas around me.

Like Galena said...Snapzilla is the *best* resource for findin cool spots, because when you pick a picture to view, the Surl link is right below it. Perfect for explorers.

I suggest walking from one side of the main grid to the other. I started such a pilgrimage in January 06 and got about half way across. I found a TON of stuff that really got me started. I started on foot and eventually graduated to hover bike so I could fly through the malls and other stupid stuff and get to the good thangs.

If I didn't have so much stuff I wanted to build right now I'd start all over again now that the grid's so much bigger!

I'm so confused that I can't even find the edge.

Oh and exploring groups: I tried looking for some, but most of the ones I could find weren't actually about exploring SL. Probably used the wrong search term.

Hover board: yes, great way to travel.

I'd suggest the Inspect option in the pie menu to see who owns something, and who made it! (right-click, More...More...Inspect)

You can click on Owner Profile and/or Creator Profile then have a look at their Picks, or Classifieds or Groups and their members and their Picks and .. .. .. . . . .

Another way to explore is to geocache in SL .. slgeocaching.com
explore and hunt for caches at the same time.. many of the listings are of some of the top rated places in SL. And if you do find a cool place that is not registered on that website then you can place your own cache for others to go find and explore..a good way to introduce others to hidden places! and its a fun free sport to boot.

Gosh.. you all have giving me some really great ideas and I have already put some of them to good use! I want to thank you again for your time.

I did enjoy that website regarding the SL Parks and Recreation.. it is unfortunate that the only thing there is the Gardens of Bliss landmark to visit from last February. Too bad more people don't know about that website and list their own special landmarks in SL. I had never heard of it until I got that URL so I am sure other people haven't either..

Good work! and thanks again!

Map-hopping. Click a random spot on the map and see where you end up. I like jumping to the little islands on the main continents. There's one with dinosaur skeletons on it!

Another good method is to pull up a landmark, get the red line showing where it is, and travel there on foot or in a vehicle (to avoid banline problems it can be best to go on foot or on an attachment mode of transport). That way you know you're going *somewhere* but you get to see what's on the way there.

Yeah...nothing like exploring in a Huey!

Another vote for Snapzilla-- I've found a lot of interesting places that way. I usually just make a note of the sim and the location so I can go look around later. If it's an especially outstanding place, I'll add it to a list I keep on a notecard, and make a few notes about it. (Speaking of which, my shops in Olive and Kishijoten-- check my profile picks-- each have a notecard giver out front that gives out a list of interesting places I've found. Feel free to drop by and get a copy, I try to keep it updated!)

Hi Lorna! I sent you a notecard in-world with ideas of places to check out

My personal must-see favorite is 'Virtual Hallucinations', located at Sedig (23,43)

There's also a 20-minute balloon tour that originates behind the Shelter in Isabel, along the waterfront that's pretty neat too. Just search on the Shelter, and when you get there, ask how to get to the Balloon Tour.

Good Luck!

oh i just found this thread, a friend of mine called zippy Cortes started up a mainland hiking group and has a few routes he made with landmarks, photos etc in the group notices. I know he is always happy to have more routes and active people contributing. Mainland Hiking Society. It is in the group searches. I will point him here too to see the recommendations already made. Guess the routes could be horse treks too, so long as they are walkable.