Boldly Going with Prince of Amor

 This week's trip took us to visit the Prince of Amor on his megaregion on OSGrid, Maze Space. 

It was quite a daring exercise, because this was our first Safari visit to Prince's regions (he has a lot!) on OSGrid, and this particular region is a challenge for any visitor, due to the dimensions and the darkness of space. On top of all that, Hurricane Helene was knocking on Florida's doors, and so Prince warned us before we got going that anything might happen RL-wise, and if he disappeared that'd be why. Luckily our timing went well, nothing got unnecessarily damp, and we had an out-of-this-world tour of the sim.

The start point for Maze Space (full HG Address at the end of the post, as always) is at over 8000m just about the position of Pluto . It's really essential that you come up here to begin, because at ground level you'll be in the sun, not a lot to see and a little to close to the heat for comfort. 

Prince Amor, today dressed as a Borg, welcomes the tourists

Instead, at the Space Station, you will find a collection of freebies, some info about the ideal Graphics settings for this build (spoiler alert, set everything to the max possible for your computer) and the main means of transport, the flying saucer. 

Best way to tour the sim is by flying saucer

There were twenty of us, so Prince put out two spaceships out so that there would be room for all. Here's the first craft, just reaching the rings of Saturn. 

We had a bit of lag so the seat poses didn't cooperate, and not all textures showed up (The lovely lady in white is Tina Bey) but the ships did their thing, taking us gradually down past the ice giants, the gas giants, to the terrestrial planets, with a brief orbit and a bit of information about each one on the way.

We learned that Saturn has 82 moons for example, which must mean the people of the planet are a bunch of lunatics? Just guessing here.

The blue spaceports all around the Space Station contain the freebie ships

You don't have to take the flying saucer, here is one of the many free spaceships you can copy and fly on this region, with Neptune in the background. The flying script is a good one, if you're a good flyer you'll soon get the hang of it, but be warned, the distances from planet to planet are astronomical!

Here's another example of a freebie ship, they're all different but share (thankfully) the same straightforward driving script.

Resourceful Safari goers who missed getting a seat on the ships found another good way to follow along...
kjs Yip: do a cam ride it's worth it!!!
lifted pixel: weee

If you have ever ttried to teleport to a moving vehicle several planets away from yourself, you'll know how tricky it can be to get the 'Sit Here' right! So when Ankh achieved it, we were all impressed. 

Thirza Ember: omg Ankh is like the Queen of all space travel I don't know how she got here but she did! the true safari spirit

Ankh Senaton: yesssss

 Leonitas Lionheart: mysteries of the universe :)

 lifted pixel: beam me up ankh

Ankh Senaton: yes I asked to Scotty

Thirza Ember: we certainly look like a strange bunch of space explorers

 the princeofamor: indeed... you will be assimilated you just didn't know it

Ankh Senaton: resistance is futile 

the  princeofamor: jupiter is just sooo huge, it takes up half our solar system

Tour: Jupiter is a giant ball of gas, with no solid surface to stand on. It's also incredibly stormy, with a famous feature known as the Great Red Spot, which is a massive storm that has been raging for hundreds of years. Jupiter has at least 79 known moons, including four large moons known as the Galilean moons, which were first observed by Galileo Galilei in 1610.

lifted pixel: even down to the core it's all gas?

Bink Draconia: looks amazing here

Thirza Ember: "all gas" hmmm sounds familiar

Kelso Uxlay: Io ahead of us,  with 400 volcanoes

the princeofamor: if you see a moon coming our way duck

lifted pixel: does it have like a little marble of solid something that's normally a gas on earth? i dent know anything about planets

Ankh Senaton: Jupiter has a metal core deep down ... probably bigger than the Earth ;-)

lifted pixel: i want to play with the jupiter marble... lol probably massive and you'd turn to mush before you could get close

the princeofamor: you will see in a bit how earth is. Once  we get past jupiter the rest is easy

Ankh Senaton: far away

Leonitas brought a parrot on the trip

lifted pixel: the bird cracks me up

Leonitas Lionheart: he must have eaten heartily today... ohhh the planet jupiter, not the person!

lifted pixel: haha do people that take on the name jupiter think they're full of hot air?

Thirza Ember: we love Jup

Leonitas Lionheart: :D

the princeofamor: yeah it is really special

Thirza Ember: I could eat a Mars Bar right around now.

Ankh Senaton: mars et ça repars !

Tour: The planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is one of the four terrestrial planets in the solar system. It is unique among the planets in our solar system in that it is the only known planet with liquid water on its surface and the only planet known to harbor life. ...

We soon reached Venus and then Mercury, which compared with the farther out planets, really felt much more bunched together. Riding around and experiencing this sim gives you a much clearer idea about the solar system. Including the esplosion of myths like the color of Venus,.

the princeofamor: not sure why everyone thought it was green

Leonitas Lionheart: ok so venus has a toxic atmosphere, similar to parts of sl?

the princeofamor: yes I think so, very toxic

The Sun, with Mercury showing up as a big white spot, and our spaceship a dark circle

Tour: Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, with a diameter of only about 4,880 kilometers, which is roughly one-third the size of Earth. Despite its small size, Mercury is a mighty planet, with a surface that is covered in craters, mountains, and valleys. It's also the fastest planet in our solar system, orbiting around the sun in just 88 Earth days. Unfortunately, because of its proximity to the sun, temperatures on Mercury can reach up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and drop to -290 degrees Fahrenheit at night. As for moons, Mercury doesn't have any moons of its own.

lifted pixel: lol mercury is the smallest now that they kicked pluto out, eh? bright little guy.

Ankh Senaton: with such a temp difference it is strange it never exploded

the princeofamor: yes I think so

Thirza Ember: yay we made it back!

Taarna Welles: Woot woot

Leonitas Lionheart: grabs motion sickness bag as souvenir... that was fun , Prince! great job

 Ankh Senaton: ha ha

Thirza Ember: these ships are really great looking

 the princeofamor: I was very happy with the kit,  glad it worked, looked for a limit, in the sf poser but didn't see it... something else to learn I guess

Ankh Senaton: anti gravity is quite good ;-)

Back on the Space Station, we took a moment to look outside and above the Landing point, where there's a whole other section full of ships and space hardware.

Thirza Ember: so Prince, how long have you been in Opensim?

Tosha Tyran: where has everybody gone? sucked up into the black hole?

Forest Azure: yes, was wondering too

lifted pixel: we were up in space chatting about physics

Pixels in Space!

the princeofamor: thanks...  I been here about 2 years now

Thirza Ember: from SL before that?

the princeofamor: yes from when it opened, only really discovered opensim about 2 years ago, a little before physics was here

 lifted pixel: welcome!

Star Ravenhurst: This is quite an accomplishment in just 2 years!

the princeofamor: oh yes,  learned a lot, great people in osgrid to learn from.  I am a star trek buff and I happened to notice NASA put out the 4k planet meshes, and well -  had to do it... then well had been working the planes

Ankh Senaton: _\V/

the princeofamor: then found the asset kits...

lifted pixel: i was just about to ask about the ships. there's a ton of different ships in the hangars, very neat

the princeofamor: ...the one guy had 20 space fighters in the thing. There are more if you fly up, I have some huge huge ones, little hard to drive. I have a big ship here also on the tp board there, it is 3 regions big, 20 rooms or so.

Thirza Ember: oh let's go up on the roof

Star Ravenhurst: Impressive!

Tosha Tyran: omg

Thirza Ember: can you tell us a bit about the other regions you have made?

the princeofamor: well I rent about 100 at moment, all osgrid, my personals I have about 10, basically they are my inventory of things that I bring in using blender. I have an avatar island, I have an ocean, I have an adult sim for hypnosis, I have a car sim has over 300 cars

Forest Azure: yes!

the princeofamor: airport about 50 or so planes, and buildings, a waterslide park, I have a huge house sim with houses I fixed, I have a medieval sim, a cruise ship shop... I have a sign on the main landing that will take you there, and a HUD for teleporting also.

Star Ravenhurst: Prince thank you so much for a lovely and interesting tour.

James Atlloud: I tried one of the ships - I crashed it of course. I just got a little singed

the princeofamor: it is ok james, it will grow back

Tosha Tyran: yeah, Prince! the tour was great - and a little scary :D

Forest Azure: yes, ty, prince! so nice to see tosha's hair stand up

James Atlloud: stand up hair for a stand up person

Tosha Tyran: lol, it is still half way on venus

the princeofamor: glad you all enjoyed it, thank you for visiting. I have to head out to work now.

lifted pixel: don't work too hard!  thank you for sharing your work :D

Tosha Tyran: thanks Prince!

Tina Bey: hugs Prince

Leonitas Lionheart: well done prince, ty

Star Ravenhurst: Stay safe Prince!

Tina Bey [es→en]: congratulations!!

Taarna Welles: Thank you Prince for the great tour.

HG Address:  hop://hg.osgrid.org:80/Maze%20Space/1275/686/8888

The Prince of Amor