Safari on Europa

 Second destination for the premiere of the Spring Season of Safari  - Europa! 

This region on Wolf Territories Grid opened a while back, (HG address is, of course, at the end of the post as usual) with a big party celebrating its Mall, stocked with avies, outfits andmesh objects with a sci-fi fantasy twist. 

About 15 of us made it over, and while the lag definitely played some tricks with outfits, Text chat, and people frozen here and there, on the whole it held up pretty well, and experienced safaristas will often just cam to where the people are even if they can't move. So it all worked out pretty well.

The arrival area was full of light, strange signs, and these dancing androids...

...and of course the welcoming committee, very real people, Xenon Darrow and Wattoo Tatooie, or is that our good friend Contessa Lacombe, hmm suspicions...

Xenon Darrow: Let me start by welcoming you to Europa, Moon of Jupiter. This is a colony designed by Jimmy Olsen for Wolf Territories. Everyone should have a look around welcome! There is a great deal to see

Star Ravenhurst: I love this place!

Wattoo Tatooie and Xenon Darrow on hand to greet us all

Due to a word salad allergy, I can't abide chatbots, but some people love them and one can imagine that a solitary visitor might find them company, and Bobby the ChatBot of WTG will definitely respond if you ask him stuff!

Kelso Uxlay: Hey Bobby where are my missing parts?

Bobby II: Hello Kelso! I'm here to help you find your missing parts. Could you tell me more about which parts are missing and where you last noticed them? This information will help me assist you better.

Kelso Uxlay: My hair

Kelso Uxlay: my clothes

Kelso Uxlay: Forget it

Star Ravenhurst: I need my haiiirrr

Taarna Welles: lol

Xenon Darrow: Well, fortunately, this is an alien and humanoid  moon, so we pay no mind to bodies LOL. We understand that there are wardrobe and body malfunctions on the hg ;) James atLLOUD: All the meshies are coming together.  The moons must have aligned.

Star Ravenhurst: It just rezzed for me

 Xenon Darrow: It's important to put on shared environment to appreciate the artistry that Jimmy used in creating Europa. Jimmy is sort of a god of landscaping, light and sound, script manipulation, and virtual world architecture. Jimmy is an architectural minimalist, using clean lines and lighting accents to create complexity in the build itself. His maximalism is in adding moving elements, sounds, and interactions, especially in the area of vehicles. On Europa, there is no intersim teleport. You are welcome to fly on the region, but Jimmy has provided many amazing ways to get around.

Luna.Lunaria: such a cool place :-)

 Xenon Darrow: I consider this region a living art gallery. Jimmy has attention to every slight detail so consider yourself in a living art installation.  Here at the Welcome area, we have access to the Magga Bagga Intrasim transport and the Taxi bubble. You may call a taxi from the taxi kiosks. The bubble seats up to four; just hop on, click the bubble, and choose your destination. The intrasim transport seats up to 32 passengers, taking you to designated areas around the region. The instrasim transport makes rounds every 5 mins or so.

Star Ravenhurst: I like the Taxi service.  It works very well.

Luna Lunaria: we luvs bubblez

Xenon Darrow: now, keep in mind...often, our resident zombie shows up... he just popped by, if you jump in his bubble, he will just be rude, stinky and you will go no where

Star Ravenhurst: I don't care for zombies. Not at all. shudders

James atLLOUD: As long as they are not FAST zombies I'm ok

Xenon Darrow: So, we can use the bubbles to go places and we have the intrasim blue transport.

Taarna Welles: I found a new partner. I'm in love with Wattoo Totooie :D

Xenon Darrow: For those of you up here, there is a lovely club behind us. The Mugga Bugga Intrasim should show up momentarily. but you can go up, play greedy, drink wine, and just relax after a hard day of avoiding some of our more invasive species.

Just time for a swift cocktail before we head into outer (or do I mean freebie) space

Luna Lunaria: Fun place Xenon :-)

Xenon Darrow: Well, that is taking longer than I meant for it to :) When you are ready, hop on a bubble and let's go to the Intersim

Thirza Ember: you forgot we all want to take photos lol

Xenon Darrow: Oh yeah... well, let's wait then! We will hang here; there is sooooo much going on, just drink it in

Luna Lunaria: omg so gonna come back here and have fun

Thirza Ember: how did this idea come about do you know? why this particular theme

Xenon Darrow: well, this original build is OLD. I want to say...5 years? Jimmy made these components and plan looooong ago. but he never got to really build it out. Lone offered him that opportunity and here we are!

Luna.Lunaria @grid.wolfterritories.org%3A8002: watch out for the 3rd rail James

James atLLOUD: glad those ships were phantom!

Xenon Darrow: Here at the intersim station, you can see the multilevel intersim highway. Here we can see Jimmy at full tilt - tons of movement, sound, light, and the occasional mischievous drunken green aliens out partying with their brethren. The red intersim transport holds up to 32 aliens...er...passengers. (All are welcome, even the...humans). We may travel on the intersim; it will bring us back to this location. Be sure to use your camera to really get the feel of the trip! The taxi and intrasim stops include Welcome, the Terrace, the raceway, and the intersim station.

Xenon Darrow: The next red transport that comes and stops...jump on it!

Thirza Ember: haha... i got on in while it was moving, thank god for point and tp ahaha. There's just so much to take in here, it's a bit overwhelming

James atLLOUD: a lot of original design too

Xenon Darrow: to the right of this and around the corner is the rocket ship. That makes regular stops to the Mugga Bugga Mall. We have The Mugga Bugga Mall, including the famous and tasteful Chez Watto, the high fashion for the discerning humanoid and everyone else. Pay no mind to Watto...the establishment is lovely, and the fashion is exceptional haute couture, and prices are always the best! You may get to the mall via interphasic taxi or using the rocket ship to the side of the intersim station.

The rocket, which takes you up to the  mall

Luna.Lunaria: is there a spaceport here that I could fly to from another region?

 Xenon Darrow: Not currently, Luna. We had this traveling between regions.. but then, the HG borked :) But you can use your own personal ships. We have residences here you can park your ship. Just talk to Jimmy!

Luna Lunaria: I have spacecraft here on WTG that I would love to fly here

Wattoo Tatooie: We are going to Chez Watto now?? You can get some fine clothes there!

Xenon Darrow: WATTO! You are so GREEDY! Start escorting them to the mall, and DON'T MAKE DEALS!

Wattoo Tatooie: Watto has the BEST prices!

Xenon Darrow: Everything is free; don't believe him.

Luna Lunaria: I love all this :-)

Xenon Darrow: oh...it's awesome

Thirza Ember: it's immense and such fun

Luna.Lunaria: I like immense :-)

Xenon Darrow: well, he is building out the nine regions

Xenon Darrow: Welcome to the glory of the Mugga Bugga mall!

The rather alarmingly named Mugga Bugga Mall.
Hopefully neither will happen to you while you're there!

Mal Burns: cam hell that was

Original Character: It was rather

Alex Salamander: :-)

Thirza Ember: shop till you drop now

Star Ravenhurst: I think I already cleaned this place out. It is great for any futuristic or space builds for supplies.

James atLLOUD: this is ridiculously immersive!  wowzers!

Thirza Ember: wattoo and xenon, do you have a favorite piece of the build? did you suggest any additions that got integrated into the build?

Wattoo Tatooie: Eh!  Chez Watto is my favorite!

Xenon Darrow: Well, I like my alt's house here. I love the arboretum, which we haven't seen, and I love the Terrace. But the speedway is something else!

There is a great deal to see on the region, and the planned trip to include a trip to the raceway was possibly a wee bit ambitious for our one hour look-see, but that's kind of the point of a Safari. There should always be bits we don't see, to tempt us back, with friends, to explore at a more leisurely pace. It is a really hard thing for our hosts, who are fully rezzed, totally orientated, and usually with a pretty high frame rate, to figure out how much to show us. It's a balancing act between showing too little, and trying to fit too much in so that the experience tips over into 'complete blur' territory.

Thirza Ember: i think one or two are struggling with a little bit of lag

Xenon Darrow: LOL I was too...we are def putting a load on the region. but you have to admit...it's pretty good on lag, given everything that is happening here

Thirza Ember: well it's a lot of people trying to absorb a lot of assets

James.atLLOUD: What, really?

Xenon Darrow: yes! For me, I love to bring educators here...they get blown away by what is possible

We talked fashion for a bit, and 

Thirza Ember: so how does Jimmy work, would love to know a bit about that. Does he start a big project like this and just keep going, or does he do a bit of this, a bit of that?

Xenon Darrow: Well, I am not in Jimmy's head per se(shhh..I am but don't tell hi), however, working with him, I get that he makes a basic designx very minimalist, focusing on terrain, then the simple builds, and then he starts layering. Next focus is light and movement. He is working on other parts of this right now. he is considering some other builds as well. He just did another of these regions called Europa University for me, but we have to do some work on it. He keeps adding features...and then he starts with finishing details. The story...the theme, like the political billboards down on the ground. All the graffiti and advertising

Thirza Ember: the devil in the details!

Xenon Darrow: yes and he is OBSESSED with the details - he invited our little gang to contribute. Tessa created this store; I did a good deal of the AI imagery...everyone contributed. It was great fun. We even had a grand opening for Chez Watto

Wattoo Tatooie: Xenon was a fantastic model!

Xenon Darrow: and I really admire the way Jimmy uses OSW to market the builds. He almost tells a story with the marketing

Thirza Ember: I like the combo of some freebie stores like this, with a story-telling build, it is not easy to pull it off, because often the Mall make so much lag, it detracts from the rest of the build

Xenon Darrow: No...Jimmy is a wizard at dealing with lag

Jimmy, the Spaceman, arrives to say hello

Taarna Welles: All Hail The Great Shamalama!!!

Xenon Darrow: LOL

Jimmy Olsen: howdy allz :)

Xenon Darrow: Jimmy just got back from an errand..and his hands prevent him from doing tons of typing ... But I enjoy talking smack about him while he can only watch

Forest Azure: hello jimmy

Star Ravenhurst: Hello Jimmy! This is fantabulous!

Jimmy Olsen: hi :)im on discord with xenon and other friends. cant type much.. issues on hands. so any question i answer from her

Xenon Darrow: So, I would love to take you guys to the walking path among the towering trees that connects the entire region or the raceway

Xenon Darrow: do you have a preference?

Forest Azure: the towering trees?

Wattoo Tatooie: Yes!   Very nice trees!

Xenon Darrow: let's run to the bubbles and go to the Aboretum!

Thirza Ember: sounds fun we have 10 minutes left so let's go

Xenon Darrow: LAST ONE IS A ROTTEN ALIEN!

Forest Azure: this is really great!

Xenon Darrow: so, this path takes you all the way around the region but the ramp takes you to a beautiful camping bubble... For the pesky humans, they can step in here to experience their smelly boring homeworld!

Forest Azure: a bit like those WoW bubbles

Thirza Ember: what a charming little hideaway in all the sci fi jungle

Xenon Darrow: Jimmy made this bubble for our friend Doc Nolan. But it is a hit with all

Forest Azure: /me is shocked... james is not sitting, he is laying

Xenon Darrow: he is chilling

Forest Azure: oh, ok, I said too much

James atLLOUD: There's so much to do in this tent.  Not all family friendly!

Thirza Ember: lol James, oh dear...

Jimmy Olsen: @.@  LØL  @.@

Xenon Darrow: careful, James, someone might jump in there with you ;p

Wattoo Tatooie: Just watch out for those Maga Baga Spiders!

James atLLOUD: OH watto, I never knew!

Wattoo Tatooie: Quick!  Take a Photo!

Xenon Darrow: yes, when you go to the raceway, we have an invasive species that might chase you. And just ignore the dead bodies...they just mark where the spiders are

Tina Bey: all this is excellent!! really great congratulations

Thirza Ember: so this is you guys'  vision of the future... a celestial city, with James in a naughty tent....

Star Ravenhurst: This has been an awesome visit. Thank you for the tour. Well done!

Thirza Ember: thanks for hosting us Jimmy, and thanks to Wattoo and of course Xenon for showing us around!!

Mal Burns: yes - great fun

Forest Azure: will absolutely come back!

James atLLOUD: simply. amazing.

Nara Nook: thank you it was a lovely tour

Star Ravenhurst: See everyone next week

Alex Salamander: Thank you and bye bye

HG Address: hop://grid.wolfterritories.org:8002/EUROPA/508/506/86