Safari Potters About the Hyperverse

      Fourteen Harry Potter regions, of which nine are open to the public, featuring thousands of scripts and gazillions of beautiful textures, fully furnished buildings, including shops and houses - not to mention a spectacular reconstruction of Hogwarts school... this was the first of two destinations this week to Metropolis and then to neverworld, with an intriguing Extra stop at the end on OSGrid. All hypergrid addresses at the end of this post, as usual.

          Franzisca Bossi is an Opensim Treasure; she has been around longer than most of us, building and contributing to the hypergrid in many ways.

Franziska Bossi

            The Hogwarts project has been going on for three years or more, in collaboration with Metropolis Grid's own Eryn Galen, a star in her own right.

Eryn Galen

     The main arrival spot on the build is at the railway station, where the steam engine has just pulled in... and Hagrid is there to meet it. 

          The village of Hogsmeade has many shops containing everything from cake to hats to broomsticks. Not all are completely stocked up yet, so make frequent visits to get your free Potter supplies, the plan is that, one day, this build may be used for roleplay, too. 

          Numerous NPCs roam the build, all your favourite characters, like Ron and Harry seen here, apparently havig a crafty half at the pub... naughty boys!

          A warning: raising your draw distance too high - something any visitor would be tempted to do, there's so much gorgeous scenery to look at - is usually prelude to freezing, or a crash, even when you're alone on the sims. 

            At the same time, it's worth all effort, because of the richness of the content. It's on a home computer, so to bring the Safari troupe over there was a bit of an act of madness. 

          Franzi set out some benches at the Station on Hogsmeade, where everyone took a seat, in deference to the server. It would be crazy to imagine everyone could rez all the scenery, even with draw distances set low.
         Yet, amazingly, the regions managed to support 20 avatars, and we only crashed the place when we tried to walk across to the next sim.
Eryn Galen: I think its probably a combination of a few things, including Hogwarts consisting of around 150 thousand prims and a few thousand scripts at this point, 
Flidais Merlin: I liked the sounds in Hogsmeade it adds a lot to the atmosphere
Eryn Galen: There is a secret passage in Hogs Head
Thirza Ember: how closely did you stay to the books?
Eryn Galen: We tried to stay as closely as we could, but of course we had to make allowances for Opensim and the layout of the regions.

George Equus: coming alone to Hogwarts was no problem, rezed fast despite all those prims :)
Eryn Galen: But then you are not sharing bandwidth ;-)
Thirza Ember: the actual school is a masterpiece
Eryn Galen: You absolutely need to try the stairs. We have included a lot of secret rooms and passages, there is even the chamber of Secrets if you can find it. 
Thirza Ember: is there going to be any sort of guided hunt , eryn, inside the build?

Eryn Galen: Yes we are planning on that, I need to think on how to do it without overloading the server and connection. I have cut them back as much as possible while still having everything we want in there, such as scripts to operate doors and sit poses, NPCs and the rideable carriage.
Thirza Ember: the attention to detail is the heart and soul of the build
Eryn Galen: indeed, but that's also what is limiting the number of people who can enjoy it at any given time probably.. it's just too huge and too detailed

          Anyone who visits would agree that it would be a shame to have to spoil the build by over economizing. So make sure you visit, be patient, let the place load properly and then enjoy the vast immersive quality of this brilliant build.

The elusive coins in the coin hunt!

          Our second destination was on Neverworld. We went to see their innovative Hunt build on the region called Dream Hunt. 

Pasha Theas

         It was landscaped by Pasha Theas  who, along with Dream Catcher, Govega Sachertorte, and Neverworld's scripting genius Locked Semaphore, were there to meet the group in a picnic setting made specially to absorb our lag, and explain the game. 

           The Hunt has been open for about a month, although it took significantly longer than that to make everything work just right. It's a fun game they have enjoyed both making and playing, with Dream Catcher one of the most enthusiastic players. 

Dream Catcher

          Prizes are made by a number of residents, including Govega, who's a bit of a stylist and has her own store on the region called Marvelous Designer. 
Dream Hunt is an interesting variation on the usual Hunt builds where you find objects, or the clues to one final big prize. Here, the coins you collect (which we should note are not a local currency, or transferable) can be redeemed for a variety of prizes, which means you get to choose the thing you win!

Locked Semaphore ad Govega Sachertorte

           Gold coins are located all around the region, a spectacular park full of trees, flowers, bushes, lakes and rocks. 
Locked Semaphore: The coins will always be at least partially visible. They like to attach themselves to objects, but sometimes will bury themselves halfway in the ground or water. The coins are placed randomly around the sim.

Power of Green 

Govega Sachertorte: watch out for flowers that look like the yellow coins
Locked Semaphore: There are 50 one token coins, 10 five token coins and 5 ten token coins. Claimed coins are always replaced with new ones so the total number remains constant. The coins get restless if you don’t claim them and will move to a new position every Ten minutes. Your token account balance is permanently recorded by our servers and is available to you anytime. There is a daily limit of 100 tokens per player.

Lucy Afarensis

          It was fun to watch the group running around looking for money under every leaf and petal! The ambiance here is very tranquil and pleasant, and this is just one of the attractions of the grid which is also home to the scifi build Raius, and more...
Govega Sachertorte: we have the fashion cluster Couture and we are going to have modeling school there
Dream Catcher: i be teaching the runways

Govega Sachertorte: Our next project will the a builders cluster : free building supplies and classes
Locked Semaphore: If anyone is ready to "Cash in" just take the portal to the redemption center

          Up we went, to the Redemption Center in the sky.
Locked Semaphore: They range in price from 5 to 250 tokens, Just touch the vendor or price tag to purchase. The amount will be deducted from your token account balance and the item deposited in your inventory.

          And finally, those of us who were left, dropped in at Show & Tell region on Osgrid, where Fim Fisher, together with Concordia Salus, had invited us to help Beta test TAPS the new avatar charades game. 

          The idea is to identify the animations, or in other words, figure out the message they imply... when you guess right, you're the next one on stage! 
          Mal Burns did an animation that had something to do with opening a garage, which cannot be shown here for legal reasons.

          Here's Fim doing his bit... it was late and I can't remember what this animation turned out to be, but the game is a lot of fun, and congrats to Fim for coming up with a very amusing way of being together. More TAPS to come for all of us, I hope!

HG Addresses

Hogwart's by Franzi and Eryn     hypergrid.org:8002:hogi8
Neverworld Hunt                      hg.neverworld.com:8002:Dream Hunt
TAPS game                                hg.osgrid.org:80:Show & Tell