Necronom music video

French italian artist AMONN, or Damien Cygnet in SL has produced a music video for his Radiohead remix using all sorts of backgrounds from Necronom. It's rare to see machinima running at framerates above 10, so be sure to check it out!

Body measurement in Second Life

As I have recently been attending a lecture on Virtual Reality at universtiy I have found a lot of interesting things to take with me when designing in Second Life. Today something was mentioned that I wanted to summarize here for future reference.
The example in question was described by a car manufacturer. VR environments are often created using projections, so in this case they wanted to simulate the model of a car in real size for the customer to inspect. However, while the projection was physically the exact same size as the real life car, the viewer would still perceive it as much smaller.
The reason for this is a psychological phenomenon, that, while apparantly still unexplored, results in humans perceiving objects as much smaller as soon as they are framed in a smaller Field of View.
Almost immediately I had to think of Second Life and its avatar sizes. A lot of fuss is sometimes made about people adjusting their sizes to unrealistic values, but I personally believe my example explains and justifies that kind of behaviour. While Second Life has a scaling model that tries to attach completely arbitrary numbers to everything in world, I would personally argue that what feels right for the people is a whole lot more important then fitting into a made up chart.
I believe that efficient design is all about making the user feel comfortable and natural in an environment that is about as fake as it can get, so next time an autistic member of the bodymeasurement nazi club tries to tell you that you should feel bad for chosing your size, you can show them to this article and tell them that Oni Horan said that some dude said, that some guy said that it is simply about human nature and nothing else!

A first step

Back when I set out to make Necronom about 3 years ago I never really planned to have a big store or something like a mall, those were all last minute additions. As a result the mall has always been a true eyesore and nothing but a mistake, but considering how long this location has lasted already, it was clear it had to be redone. And so I present to you the new Necronom mall:
Over the years I've come to realize that the mall is not just a necessary evil, it actually provides true value to the visitors if it has the right stores. I really hope it will be more fun to use it from now and I hope to integrate it into the RP environment a little as well, so it's not completely out there.
Most importantly however, this was a very necessary change because there are a lot of things I can only do now that the entry area has been redesigned. Keep your eye open for more to follow in the future.

The moving trucks are here...

Quite a while ago Ning anounced that they would be terminating their free service of providing groupwebsites.

Essentially we have gotten used to a world where all our online activities are free of charge and come out of thin air and I am well aware that this won't be going on forever. I come from the Web 2.0 business after all and I know that times have changed and endless money bags have closed rather abruptly over the last year.

Despite that however, if you look into the specific payment models that ning is offering to it's customers it leaves no doubt that they are not interesting in dealing with little communities like our own any longer, in other words, the deal they offer is completely unacceptable for the purpose of Necronom VI.

To put it more detailed, they will be charging their customers by looking at the number of signed up members. Naturally Necronom VI has collected a fair amount of members over the last few years, but while that is a reality, it does NOT mean that all these members are constantly using the site, causing datastorage and serverload to ning.

That along with the threatening mails I have been constantly receiving from ning these last few months makes it very clear that we are outa here.
What few people know is that a year ago ning, without warning or notice, started to shut down any communities that were containing adult material of any kind on top of this, so I can't really say I regret this turn of events.

There are other providers offering fair deals and reasonable policies, so I am happy to anounce that a very capable replacement has been found:

http://grou.ps/necronomvi/ will be the new community website for Necronom VI.

All members will be receiving emails to their supplied emailadresses with the new login-infomrmation. Since the service is sizelimited, I opted for not bringing over all the pictures. Please feel free to reupload any pictures you deem important, I simply couldnt go through all the 1000 pictures you have created over the years on my own. I did howver make sure all the forumposts are transfered, so not everything is lost.

Please be patient as I bring the new site into shape, as usual I've been a lazy bastard and am doing this at the very last moment...

LOGOS cards released

It's finally time to release LOGOS cards to the public, be sure to read my more detailed post here.
All you need to know is that the first 100 players will get an exclusive limited card, so be sure to grab one while it lasts!
The game launches with 100 Necronom themed cards, so I'm sure the church of LOGOS has something to offer for any player that enjoys this place.

LOGOS - Website going live

Thanks for all the interest and especially to those who are currently helping us test the game as we add more features.
Today I can finally shed some more light on the project, you can now access the website http://www.logos-cards.com/ and read up everything there is to know.
On top of that I have finally finished the trailer of the game, so be sure to check it out.

LOGOS - Work in progress

As some of you have noticed, I have been burried deep in the Necronom labs, brewing dangerous things. Essentially, over night I had to focus on the two biggest planned projects of my SL career at once, so that means I have two big anouncements to make and today it is time for the first.
After a long time of development I am very proud to anounce Logos, a brandnew collectible card game for Second Life and Necronom in particular. Darien Caldwell and me have been working on it for a very long time now, getting it into a playable state and since we finally reached that goal, we are actively looking for testers, that will hopefully help us polish everything for the release.
If you have serious interest in helping us out, while being among the first to set their eyes on this unique new experience, please send me an IM in world.

New things to do...

It's been a while that I have touched the mission games, but since I still get asked about it almost daily I figured it's realyl about time for a long overdue update.
First off, I have restructured the missionboard completely. Now there is information about the difficulty of a mission, as well as wether it's a minigame or a puzzle. That should help players to find what they want much faster.
Next, what would an update be without new missions and with that I have added some long planned missions to the mix, I surely hope you will find them enjoyable
And finally, of course I am aware that an update doesn't matter to you people because you are merciless vultures and only care about free stuff. So obviously I have added some brandnew mission rewards to the panels on top of all that. Enjoy!

Headaches

I finally sat down and built the body for a design of an alien head I created years ago. I present you the mantipod:


NECRONOM LEXICON

--Mantipod Alien--
This predatory lifeform is sometimes found after hatching in freight areas of deepspace cargo ships. It is currently unknown where it was discovered, but it has been confirmed that humans have transported them to various planets accidently where they quickly adepted to the local environment. This shows their extremly intelligent nature, they adjust to new prey very quickly and are generally classified as highly dangerous.
While the creature posseses a basic pair of eyes for short sight, it mostly experiences its environment by vibrations that can be felt by its extremly sensitive legs. The behaviour of a mantipod can only be descriped as extremly agressive, as they quickly attack and kill anything that comes closeby, in many cases even their own kind. When they spot another lifeform they send out pheromones to mark their prey. After that they will hunt it down mercilessly, attacking with their sharp teeth and their venomous stingers, which paralyze the victim instantly.
Rarely do crew or passangers of a space vessel survive an encounter with this creature, which is precisely why their eggs fetch for incrredible amounts of money on the blackmarket as rivaling syndicates have started using them to get rid of unwanted competition.

As always check it out in the necronom store.

Need your help!

So for a few... years... I've been getting reports that sex devices don't rez poseballs, every time I investigated it myself and couldn't find an issue. When I went and tried it out it worked just fine.
Well now I know why!
Thanks to a fun little bug everything at Necronom that is supposed to rez things works flawlessly.... only while I'm online. Basically as soon as I go offline, all the fun stops for everyone. No sex devices, no random creatures spawning, many missions not working and worst of all, a few really cool projects in the future will be impossible as well.
Since we can't have that, please take a little time and vote for this issue here: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-3145
Thank you for your support!

Portal to other worlds

I finally got around doing something I promised around two years ago, since I always try to make things as detailed and special as my mind allows it takes ages until I actually get to sit down and finish it.
This is basically a traveller terminal, which allows station visitors to select from various locations to travel to. Essentially it is nothing but a simple landmark hander, but it finally lists all the locations that are 100% compatible with the Necronom universe.
Currently these locations are: Doomed ship, Splintered rock and the Vortex ship.
It is supposed to help players migrate with their characters, because always sticking to one place can be pretty boring at times.
If you know any more areas that might be compatible (which means you can take 100% of your character and background and play there without difficulties) then be sure to inform me and I'll add them too!

Elvis is alive

As some of you have painfully noticed, ever since last week the Sim that Necronom VI is located on is set to adult. Personally I strongly feel it would be worth to argue that it is just a mature area, because I do not feel that Necronom VI is a project that primarily focuses on adult aspects, but due to a technicality there is no other choice.
Now what does this mean for players? As player, if you want to get in, you have to do one of two things, either link a credit card of your choice to your profile, or get age verified.
Basically this whole issue is a huge pain for us, because from now Necronom VI will be blocked from the Second Life search for anyone who doesn't have adult content enabled. A lot of people don't know about this yet, so what is missing is those people who find Necronom just randomly. In most cases, from what I've seen, bypassers really like what they find here, so I consider this a huge disservice to both me and the Second Life players. It vastly decreases the amount of players and shopcustomers that find the place, which on the longterm poses a huge threat to the whole project.
But all the trouble is worth it, right? It makes sure only adults get access to this content and SL becomes a safer place right?
Well, let me tell you about the sad truth. One thing Linden Labs promises is that all the data they receive for age verifications is stored neither with them nor with their data processing partner. Think about what this means for a second, it means that they are not able to crosscheck new data they receive, in fact, every single Second Life resident is able to verify with the exact same information, without any consequences whatsoever.
Kind people have already provided a list of various identities, whose real owners really won't mind anymore.
Let me make this clear for you, Linden Labs has spent enormous amounts of resources and money to develop these adult features for over a year and the result is a system that is fooled with one single copy/paste by a toddler. I would wonder when they'd start asking why Elvis Presley has so many Second Life accounts, but like I explained, they have no legal possibility to even find out.
Well played, Linden Labs, well played.

Roleplaying guide

Yesterday I have released a guide that sums up a basic behaviour codex for roleplaying on the station. It contains a set of rules on what to do to NOT step on other peoples toes and thats its whole purpose. People have shown to increasingly ignore others space and I think it was more then necessary to release a guideline on what's okay and when.
It is meant to be the general standard, so when someone does not follow it you have this guide to point at and tell them they are breaking the norm.
It is not meant to be instructions on what stories to RP, how to make your character, etc, because I still firmly believe that it's important to leave the door open for imagination and creativity, it is only a guide on how to respect other people and merely common sense, of which I have noticed a dramatic lack in recent days.
To read the guie, check out this thread I've prepared.

Entry area

Since the entry of Necronom VI has been rather confusing for a while I decided to create a new improved one. Products should be found much more easily now and passing to the RP area is as easy as ever. Also I can finally collect all important things at one point, which is especially important for some of the bigger upcoming additions.
For roleplaying just jump into the hole below the entry and youll get to familiar grounds.

Storing bodies

Ever had a slave turn moldy long before the expiration date?
Well this is a problem the past because now there is a way to conserve them for a long time to come. We austrians have a long tradition of storing bodies in deep cold cellars so we know our stuff!
Mennisco Volitant has come up with an awesome new ice effect, that really looks quite fantastic, but have a look for yourself.

As always its available at the shop in world and ill leave a unit somewhere around the lab for RP.

Fresh

So one of the first ideas I had back when I set out to do a virtual spaceenvironment was a shower in Zero-G, but like everything it took ages to be finished and finally be released. Thanks to Lexbot Sinister who has made the animations I finally managed to put on some final polih and finish it for the Necronom sote, where oyu can find it as usual. Enjoy.

G.Bar

With a huge party we finally kicked off the new bar that will be accessible in Necronom from now. Big thanks to Rangiku Nakamori for putting up the music and everyone else who helped making it a fun event.


The bar itself will be accompanied by a new and improved teleportation system that will also allow easy movement into many areas that have been added over time, or that will play crucial roles in future updates.


The bar itself will hopefully cover all the desires of needy guests, you can spend your well earned credits from the mission games on cocktails, float around in zero gravity or just spin around the bar chairs. It's a pretty immersive area, which is mostly thanks to the animations that Lexbot Sinister either created or helped selecting so if you enjoy them be sure to let her know.

Free stuff for everyone...

... or not, nothing is free in life and neither are the new mission rewards that i finally managed to put up today.
From now on you will be able to put those hard earned credits to good use. I think I managed to put together a selection of things where everyone should be able to find something usefull. From RP items, to BDSM gear, to accessories, just have a look yourself. And the best of it, none of it will cost cost a single L$.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped putting this together, namely Lexbot sinister, Xentory Delacroix, Mennisco Volitant and Dvorin Radek.

Where's the tentacles?

So I realize I've been busy with a lot of things completely out there for a while, neglecting the very basics that adult space exploration is all about: brutal tentacle rape.
But now I finally sat down and finished a device you may have seen before in its prototype form. I'm a bit tired today, but by tomorrow it should be available in the store for your garden. Not only do I believe it offers a very ncie effect, it also comes with a copyable flowerbud so you can decorate it all you want and fit it into your environment.



Great thanks go to Enkina Trenchcoat for patiently assisting with the video, I had forgotten how much fun it is to put those together, look forward for more on that regard in the future.

Drama Threat

February 13, 2009 - The Necronom VI intergalactical drama threat level is Elevated, or Yellow.

From this day on I'm providing a service for our fellow players, so they can know how high the risk of innocently getting involved with a drama incident. Unfortunately we have had a lot of regrettable victims in the past, so from now on just head here to be prepared!

Recommended Activities

• All Roleplayers should continue to be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately.
• Everyone should establish an emergency preparedness kit and emergency plan for themselves and their friends, and stay informed about what to do during a drama outbreak.

Real update

As most of you have already known, back in december I started to work on the original areas of the station to polish them. Today I have finished the laboratory, which marks the completion of this project. There's still a few things to be done here or there, but overall I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, so it's now time to go back working on the new things I was preparing then.
If you haven't been around for a while, be sure to check back some time for a small tour, theres dedinately a few new exciting things you'll find of interest.

Special Monopoly celebration sale: 50% off

As you may have heard, Linden Labs has purchased the online shopping site OnRez, only so they can shut it down before it becomes a competitor.
I stopped updating the store there a while ago since it wasnt very usefull anyway, but now that its shutting down I have decided to let it go out with a bang.
All products that are up will have a reduced price of -50% for the final two weeks of operation, so if theres something you had your eyes on for a while be quick:
OnRez-shop

Boom

Unfortunately, updates always end up being of such enormous proportions that by the time they are finished it's hardly worth pointing out anymore. The current renovation of the station that you experienced back in december is not really finished yet, but there's really many things going on at the same time, so it's just not done yet, but that doesn't mean things are standing still.
Take the latest finished project for example, the guns. Finally after having to postpone it for about 9 months now I got to release the first model.
The purpose of this is simple, the Necronom plot has a distinct entry for weaponry, that has been released a very long time ago but rarely finds use because there's imply no guns like it in SL:

--Weapons--
Over the centuries ballistic weapons have been optimized to a point where they leave little room for improvement in efficiency. A long time ago it was common practice to use blunt explosive rounds, which would damage the target in a completely unpredictable way. For some time now the use of precise needleprojectiles has become standard. Accelerated by either airpressure or, in more heavy weapons, electromagnetic coils, its very easy to disable a person precisely. The impact of the needles themselves renders the target immobile without causing unnecessary tissue damage, but can also deliver fatal effects by targeting head or spine. Additionally such needles are commonly used to carry biological or chemical compounds that help to deliver the desired effect.
In recent days a countermeasure has been witnessed. The quick advancement of magnetic technology seems to have made it possible to deploy small devices that allow influencing the trajectory of the metallic needles, rendering them useless under certain circumstances. Only a limited number of weapons is not affected, like handguns depending on airpressure that can also use ceramic ammunition, or electric weapons. Both of these alternatives come with severe limitations however, which is why close combat alternatives enjoy a renaissance.

To provide equipment that reflects this there will be a series of different guns that are designed for Necronom specifically, where there is no rezing and no fighting scripts. They are supposed to look and sound unique and they also include a very special feature that I will formally introduce some time later in connection to the missions, that will give using these weapons an interesting twist.

Mission Update

After collecting and executing ideas for a few months, I'm finally able to release a whole bunch of new missions to play. This should add a lot of variety, from minigames, to cooperative tasks, to puzzles there is even one mission that tells the detailed backstory of Necronom VI for the very first time. To sort the misions a bit there is now a new Omega mission board, where tasks will have a slightly scientific theme.
All in all I think if you enjoyed the previous batch of tasks, you will find the new ones fun as well and if you never checked the mission out before, it's all the better because now there's a really big variety to chose from.
Personally I think we now got enough content for the system to enterain someone for a while, so the next time you hear from NeMit should be when I finally managed to put together a reward system for you to spend your well earned credits on.

Micro-update

As some of you have probably noticed, today I decided to update the quarters a bit. It's an area I put together very hastily a long time ago and still very unfinished, so considering it's were you guys spend 70% of your time I figured I could AT LEAST improve it a bit.
Things may have been quiet lately, but that doesn't mean things aren't moving. I actually have started to wok on a very fun new project that could provide a lot of fun if it works out. A lot of work too, but well, what doesn't.

Happy birthday Necronom VI

Today, the 16th of October, not only marks my birthday, but also the earliest time I can actively remember running Necronom VI in a somewhat stable condition, which is why I have decided to also make it the birthday of this project.
It's really hard to say exactly, because, as few of you may know, I never officially opened Necronom VI to this day, because it stays unfinished and will probably remain so for a long time. I just pulled it out of my inventory somewhere and everything else almost happened by itself.
I must say, it's been an interesting experience to say the least, on a lot of levels. Every time I think of what made me start all this is when I remember that way back when, when I started to investigate SL as a new medium, I first concluded that it was a complete waste of time. On a first superficial view SL was merely a mirrorimage of the somewhat lacking cultural society of the USA, being full of casinos, brothels and reseller stores of people who merely wanted to make a quick buck, one looking like the exact replica of another. Considering the possibilities were endless, what a truly pathetic image SL had presented...
It was only some time later when I was working on a documentation for TV that I realized that even though the surface of SL was truly pathetic, the variety of people roaming around was much bigger then that of the provided locations. And it was no wonder really, let's say you spend a month building up your inventory of landmarks, it will be just weeks before almost all of them will be rendered useless because the locations will have disapeared. Interpersonal drama, misguided financial expectations or just a completely unreasonable understanding of the format are all factors contributing towards that and looking at these problems I was convinced I could do better.
What I wanted to create was not just another random place, it was my goal to make one that truly lasts. A place that you discover, forget and revisit months later without having to worry about where it went.
Considering that as my primary objective I think it's safe to say that now, after one year, I have accomplished that, because unless the internal rules of SL are completely turned upside down by Linden Labs, it would appear that the future of this place is safe for a long time to come, even when most of you have already moved on to something new.
That being said, what can you expect from the future? Well as far as I'm concerned, I'm far from being done. I still find the possibilities of SL fascinating and as a gamedesigner, there's a lot of ideas left just screaming to be tried out. They have been from the start and yet, I still haven't even finished putting together all the basic locations. So for the next few months I will still be busy building, before I can finally attend to the general structures of the place.
You all have seen the NeMit system being introduced, which is a first attempt on introducing some more general ways of gameplay to the project and still features only a fraction of the content I imagined. During the coming months I will also work on providing additional material for that, because the feedback has been very positive and I feel that it is a very fun way to waste some time in between the daily dramaqueen elections.
During this year I have put a lot of work into the place, but it would be shamefull not to mention all those people that have joined in to form a community and that have contributed their own part to the project. Be it group organization, or content, Necronom by now is filled with ideas and work of various people and even though many of them have already moved on over time, I still want to thank each and everyone of you for contributing how ever small your part may be, looking at everything together I think it's justified for all of you to be proud.

Update 2: The website

By now its old news because I'm way behind with the blogentries, but I still feel it needs to be explained somewhere. I am glad to see that the new Necronom VI community website has already become a fully accepted tool for players ont he station. I created it for the following reasons:

1. I think for an adult roleplaying environment like I imagine it, Second Life itself doesn't really offer enough flexibility. On the site you can set up detailed profiles with all the information you need, properly structured.
2. The tools for communication within Second Life are so broken that simple processes like discussing roleplay activities in groups for instance becomes impossible. To help with that, the site offers everyone the chance to create groups there.
3. I saw a lot of people like taking screenshots and sharing them on flickr for instance, but I believe that is a lot more fun if you can share them with the Necronom VI community itself.
4. There's many other nifty features like uploading movies, offline communication, etc.

All in all a lot of things that make up for the sometimes painfull interface. Anyway, if you're still seeing the old blog, that I will keep using by the way, head over and have a look at the community site for all things scifi, bdsm and alien sex for yourself.

M2 the second

Katier Reitveld of the Metaverse Messenger has dedicated an article to Necronoms new mission system, it contains a few snippets you might find interesting, so go check it out.

Update 1: NeMiT

Yesterday after a few months of planning and work I finally released the Necronom VI mission system. It is an attempt to make Necronom VI a richer experience that allows for more interactivity within its various environments. Personally I dislike the common roleplay elements introduced at other places, so this is not designed to encourage you to spend time on necronom forever pushing numbers.
NeMiT is the name of the HUD, of which the prototype was developed by Yuifan Yohkoh and the final version completely developed kindly by Darien Caldwell of Daris Haus fame (I would strongly encourage anyone wo likes the HUD to check out her BDSM products).
This handy little gadget will allow you to pick up and manage missions as well as the credits you will receive for completing them. Missions are small tasks or puzzles that are generally designed to engage you with the setting of Necronom VI. Some are harder then others, some can be repeated, I leave finding out the details up to you. Their second purpose however is to get you playing with other people, find that one puzzle is too hard? Just ask a friend and try it together.
When you are wearing the HUD it also changes your camera angle. This can certainly be irritating at first, but as I have said before, as designer this is how I want Necronom VI to be experienced for various reasons, not all of them of purely aesthetical nature. Just keep in mind that you can use the mousewheel and you will be fine.
On a final note, this system is completely optional. You can completely ignore it and enjoy playing here like always, or you can just have a quick look to see what's there to do, this game is as engaging as you chose it to be, but of course I will be trying to catch your interest with many new varied missions in the future.

It's a lively world out there...

Today Google has finally launched their long rumored Second Life clone to blow Second Life out of the sky. Being a content creator who certainly has a number of serious worries about certain aspects of the policies and developments over at Linden Labs it was natural to check it out asap and I must say... Google must have lost their touch, because I have never before experienced such a major misconception of a new medium on their part. Even Orkut had it's moments.
Lively wants to create a Virtual World, accessable easily within your webbrowser. For what it is it certainly looks pretty, but being sceptical about the whole trend to move each and every aplication into your webbrowser already I must point out there's a reason that some things should stay in actual aplications. On the first view I can tell that these will always be tiny limited constructions if it's supposed to run effectively.
Think about the development of the web as a whole. who was it that made the web what it is today? Was it smart cooperations, paving the way with new ideas showing a profound understanding of the new medium? No it was simply a huge sea of millions of simple ideas made by individual people, which ultimately crystalized into the web of today and even now startups founded by merely a handfull of heads are way ahead of the game because corporations are slow and unflexible. But it is them who bring and will bring all the content to Lively. Aparantly Google is trying to leave its position of sorting content for you, to filtering it for you and now to completely control whats being done for you.
The idea is to give you the ability of representing yourself and simulating the process fo you visiting a website, possibly meeting other people who are visiting along the way. But the avatar customization to represent yourself is completely defined by Google. The Interface is Mii-inspired but that's only the surface because in reality other then changing the texture of your eyebrows there won't be very much to customize on your avatar. If you want more, you have to go to googles shop where you can buy a selection of google filtered and provided content to add. In other words, to represent yourself you got to chose form a total of... 1 style... Likewise if you want to create a location you have to chose from a preset of Google-provided rooms.
It's clear to say that even through all the struggle to keep it, the completely liberal attitude of a Second Life is simply a whole different level then the silly "buy our stuff and put it on your website" approach that Google has thought up here.
Me, as content provider, game designer, wannabe artist, I have found the place to be and I don't even see the glimpse of a chance to give this mess of a virtual world a chance.

Dead ends...

Attention visitors, alien attacks have been reported with increasing occurance. We are aware that this may cause slight miscomfort especially among our female guests, so here's a few suggestions:

• Please don't wear overly revealing clothes, as this might confuse and provoke the poor creatures living in the lower sections of the station
• When you encounter dangerous creatures, please don't attempt to communicate feed or interact with them in any way, as that might lead to an unexpected pregnacy, or worse, death.
• Should you find yourself cornered with no hope for escape and all our usefull advice didn't help please try to run for one of the decompression chambers. With a bit of luck you may be able to lure a creature inside and blow it into space.

A decompression chamber has been prepared for this purpose, very close to the lab, it is advised that all personel gets familiar with the new technique. All thanks go to creator Xentor Delacroix for bringing us this fun little invention.

This is war...

Being finished slightly before the storyline that goes along with it, the mobile armor tank Yetzirah SR-6 goes into production. This heavy battle tank was designed by the scientists of colony Yetzirah, one of the Seven Stars and important member of the U.C.E.



Thanks to Arachnia Fall for bringing enough patience and tuna to be able to help playing for the movie.
As always, available at a Necronom VI station near you.

Developments

As some of you may have heard, Darien Caldwell, who was running the sim Necronom VI is located on, has shut down her business a while ago. First off I would like to thank her for her tremendous patience which is what has helped to stay Necronom VI online as long as it did.
As a result of this development, the sim has been taken over by Wildfire Walcott, also someone who has been supporting the station from the start as you may know, and moved into her desperation estate. For that I and everyone who likes coming to Necronom VI to play owe her a lot of thanks, as otherwise things might have ended up less then ideal. From now on Necronom VI will have twice the amount of prims available, which in turn will finally allow me to cosntruct a few updates that I have planned for a while. There's quite a few things in the pipeline that all build upon each other, which is why it might take a while to release it all together and as some of you may know, I haven't really been in the condition to work much here, but I'm slowly getting healthier again so I'm also picking up work here.
This change shouldn't really concern you much, except for the fact that LL is still incapable of providing a system that allows for areas to be moved without loss, so if you want to help out, please try and remember to update your picks to the new location.
A final note, you may wonder what will happen to the empty neighbourhood in the sim, well, what will happen indeed... I wonder if there's an area that would fit into there well... hmmmm...

Earth

No other occurence has ever had an impact on human society as enourmous as the destruction of Luna, the Earths first moon, a catastrophic event of biblic proportions.
The loss of the tidal effect, the state of random chaos the earths magnetic field was thrown into and the collapsing orbit almost led to the complete extinction of life on land. If forseen by our ancestors the event would surely have been described as armageddon. Within decades and only with unconditional support from outside was it possible to pull a big enough asteroid nearby into earthorbit, where it forms the second moon, Lillith, returning the planet to a somewhat stable condition. For more then a century Earth had lost any form of influence, be it political, economical or cultural. From the outdated calendar system due to the changed circumstances, to the languages and historic background, most colonies used this opportunity to become independant and a new order was wrapped over humanity.
Today Earth is mostly populated by humans on its surface, there are only a few plant and insect races left and the planets ecological cycle is mostly seabased. To this very day the planet still serves as the most efficient ground to cultivate biomass.
The difference in class within the human population is larger then ever, the several classes live strictly structured, with a large part of the population completely seperated from outside of the planet, just performing their tasks on the surface.
Several religions spreading through known space all consider Earth the holy birthplace of the human race, which has allowed Earth to claim a neutral position within the universe. Where colonies fight each other using embargos or warfare, Earth often provides the means to find diplomatic solutions. Its because of this that after the last major war the UCE was formed as an organisation around Earth.

Cracking

Inspiration hit me a few days ago and I started to wonder why the hell you don't see anything like this around.

As always available at a Necronom VI station near you, and special thanks to Kaelintha Felwitch for assisting, she has birthday in a few days and somehow it seemed liek this was the perfect present...

The madness must stop!

After watching several incidents unfold it is time for me to step in. The fun is over, no more fooling around. From this day forth there will be a new and strict ruleset enforced on the station and anyone who doesn't agree might as well just leave now, before they get removed by force for breaking regulations. Study the ruleset carefully and make sure to report every breaking of it to me right away so we can return to regulated order:

RULES AND REGULATIONS OF NECRONOM VI:

• Absolutely no cookies!
• This includes all forms of cookies and cookie dough related substances (including but not limited to all forms of dough containing a nut-percentage of over 17%), especially choclate cookies and chocolate chip cookies.
• Cookiepossession is defined by spotting a cookie that is attached to a player for a period longer then 10 seconds in any area reachable by their mouth, by either moving their head or the related bodypart. This distance can vary from player to player depending on their shape and AO, so if you are not sure if the defined cookiedistance is broken please take a silent screenshot and send it to the authorities for judgement.
• If you spot any individual that is under suspicion of publicly breaking the cookierule please report them at once to keep Necronom VI, but also all of Second Life a safe and better place.
• If you want to get involved more deeply in helping our cause please wear the nocookiesbadge. To obtain your free nocookiebadge simply contact Oni Horan!

Wrong

Some things are just wrong and I think I just discovered another one:

For all villains and nutcases, the item is as always available on the bridge.

Did you know...

This may seem slightly off topic, but since Lindenlabs can't censor my thoughts here I figured I'd give it a shot. You might have heard about this new thing called Havoc 4 being deployed in SL, bringing better stability and performance for simulaters all over SL. As some of you may know, Necronom VI has been on has been submitted to the testing and actually helped in tracking down a couple of issues and bugs. Not that this decission had been reached without a reason, you may remember the sorry state the sim was in before H4, constantly crashing and havig serious issues.
Let me tell you, Darien Caldwell invests a big deal of work in securing lagfree and stable performance to this very day.
However, the tools provided are actually very laughable. It's very easy to create items and scripts that bring down SL simulators you see and many people travel around wearing such items of poor quality, not even knowing about it. If you are used to the areas you frequent being laggy and unplayable then this is most likely the reason. LL provides absolutely no tools to track down these issues, you can only look up objects that sit within the sim. Furthermore, a simulator has detailed logs about everything that happens, but to this very day its not possible to have access to these, which I find ridiculous considering the amounts of money a simowner has to put down to have these servers.
Two simple facts, which I am deriving from many months of experience dealing with this topic on Necronom VI, which I have been stating over at the SL-Blog, where they were trying to suggest tips on how to keep a sim stable. But now, looking over the post every overly critical remark has simply been removed and the comments have been closed alltogether, sometimes you really have to wonder wether these people have any clue at all about how this age of information works...

Demands

I've gotten so many countless requests for these tentacle devices I built for the reactor that I've stopped counting.
Since finally with the last update I managed to create a new device, I decided to put the first one up for sale.

Available, as always, on the station.

Imperfectionism

Necronom VI is this big convoluted plan only fully laid out within my head. I have so many ideas for it and surrounding it that it is sometimes hard to structure them and decide on what to do, or rather, what not to do, just yet anyway.
As a result, what you may know as Necronom VI may not at all represent what I really have in mind when I look at the whole picture. As you can imagine, managing this place takes a whole lot of time in itself, so actually realizing new parts can be a process much longer then you would think.
The construction is still filled with spots that won't make any sense unless I get to work on them, but they are there anyway, contantly reminding me of the imperfect state the build is in, motivating me to get it done. The biggest such place has always been the section that I hereby open proudly officially. It has been a central spot since the early planning stages, but other things constantly shifting into the top priority spot have always distracted me from finishing it. Some of you may remember that part from the time the teleporters were down and I had to temporarly open it, but this time it is here to stay.
The shuttle dock will be a central transportation hub, from which you will be able to reach various areas nearby.
The lower section of the now open area is the habitat. If you thought that aliens always were stored within the reactorhall, then well, you thought wrong. This is where creatures and experiments were stored, but be warned that one part is still not finished, so its not yet the whole picture.
The entrance for the sterilization chamber.The aeroponic garden, might be best to stay out.

Finally the entrance hall. Keep in mind that not always what you see is what you get. When walking through that area you can never be certain if you are not being followed by something below the floor, just waiting to strike.
Enjoy exploring the new areas, I'm certain they will add a few new RP opportunities.

Cinematic

At this point I actually wanted to be finished with a couple of new areas in the station, but when I get obsessed with an idea I really can't control myself. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but I was unable to because I lacked the right locations to play out my idea. With the new areas though that was finally possible so I didn't waste a minute. Enjoy the official Necronom VI trailer:

My thanks go to everyone who participated.

Visitors by the book

SL resident Hiro Edelman has put together a fun little page of a comic that I'll glady share with everyone here. I think it looks fantastic (click to enlarge). If you like the idea, I'm currently aware of someone working on something similar, might take a while, but be sure you'll be first to know when there's something done.

Impossible...

"not possible IRL" seems like a very fine blog that's documenting the various worthwhile areas of Second Life. Not knowing them before, I'm still honored they picked the colony to write about today and while you may wonder why that should bother you, let me tell you that sneaky person managed to take a snapshot of a new area thats currently under construction, who can find it I wonder?
Have a look here and while you're at it, there's a lot of nice stuff shown in the blog, so it's definately worth a visit.

Be a chicken

While I generally like being a lazy bastard the latest creation of Shanobe Weyland really motivated me to put it up. I really love the design of these avian cyborglegs, they are as always available on the bridge.

A little lexicon entry for those who wonder what's up with all these cyborg parts, let me tell you there are some really nice things I've planend that will enrich the RP for everyone:

--Spacegravitation--
Humanity has currently no access to technology that would allow the manipulation of gravity itself. For quite a while it has been possible to sustain stable electromagnetic fields at very low energy cost however, which has become the technology of choice when adepting space locations to the needs of the human organism. Simulating gravity increases the efficiency of the human body by almost 50% over longterm periods of time so several possibilities were developed:
For short spacetravels people wear special clothes that contain metallic compounds which are influenced by the magnetic field simulating gravity. Since the barycenters of the several bodyparts are completely off it feels very awkward though and is only used by casual spacetravelers.
The cheapest and most common solution for people who are forced to spend their lives in space is boneimplants, metallic structures that are merged into the human skeleton. Unfortunately the longterm health risks are unacceptable for those who want to return to life in a normal environment with regular gravitation, so for a few decades zsimondian nanotechnology has become extremly popular as alternative. Nanobots are cultivated over the course of a month and replicate themselves inside the organism by mechanosynthesis, providing metalic compounds spread perfectly throughout the body. Furthermore its possible to remotely control the orientation of the electrons and thereas the amount of gravity for each individual selectively.

Spacelife

As you know, I was recently looking into the possibility of renting out some apartments on the sim of the station. Since your feedback was really overwhelmingly positive towards the idea I decided to give it a shot and can now present you the basic design of one living unit.
One unit consits of two areas: The lower living floor and the upper leasure-area that is a garden. This is a view of the empty lower floor. The staircase leads up and thedoors on the side to the room in the back. That room can be split into two, should you feel like you need more confined space. Of coruse the garden can be remade into soemthing metallic on request. but who wouldn't want to chill with some friends beneath the stars at such a place.
I kept the whole construction deliberately very low in prim consumption. The whole place takes only 20 prims, which leaves 80 prims to the renters to fill it with their own furniture. The whole project will not be made for profit, but since I desperately need more prims so I can build new areas within Necronom VI, the price will be a common one. The rent will be 600L$ per week, which will go entirely into the funding of the station.
At the start I will offer 4 apartments, no more and no less and considering the feedback I got so far you should hurry and let me know if you are interested.

Lots of useless text, dont bother

As the number of RP-Nazis on the station is constantly growing and I keep getting reports about people arguing for hours about who is allowed to order around whom instead of actually playing, I have decided to write this post to clarify the structure for everyone once and forall. If you are a mature person, have expirience in dealing with other people and communicating, then hey, skip the whole post and enjoy your time doing something different. This is not for you ;) If you have been sent here to study the text by someone who is too lazy to explain a situation with his own words, i apologize in advance. He doesnt love you and probably never will.

First and forall I ask of each and everyone to accept that this place has no RP rules for the random visitor whatsoever. If for example some Star Trek group decides to pay a visit then you have to live with that. Everyone is free to play whatever they like, however keep in mind, what you accept yourself is entirely up to you. If someone comes around being a total dickhead, destroying your RP that has been prepared for hours, then hey, take it easy and ignore him. Im dead serious about that, the world is full of annoying people and if you need rules to beat them down with from above to feel good then you are no better yourself. Give him an IM, explaining that his influence isnt apreciated in that form and if that isnt enough theres still a handy ignore function.

Because obviously there is a great amount of people who enjoy engaging in more sophisticated forms of RP there are a couple of official groups on the station. From these it should be expected that they properly deal with each other in the way its intended, otherwise its up to the specific groupleaders to decide what to do about their behaviour. The human groups especially have to work together and as such Ill clarify their exact hirarchy:

• The normal crew is responsible for managing the station. That includes technical responsibilities, but also anything that is related to business activities. Generally, they make sure that trading-business on the station goes smoothly and dont worry much about anything beyond that.
• The Black Talon Pirates have a special treaty with Oni Horan. They may use the station as an outpost and in turn provide their fleet of ships to protect the area directly around the station.
• The Necronom Security and Defence Force consists of mercenaries that have been hired to assist the crew in a policelike fashion. They make sure that security problems are dealt with, they escort people through the dangerous corridors, and guard certain areas. They are certainly not blindly loyal to anyone, since they are in it for the money, they sometimes question orders from other parties should their life be in danger and generally chose the degree of their loyalty themselves.
• The Chios Military Corps has been sent by Chios themselves to make sure their convoluted agenda is met. It is not quite clear what their objectives are, under normal circumstances they will assist with station security, but should they see their mission in danger they are ordered to take extreme actions, no matter what other fractions may think about it. They would not hesitate to kill other personal in certain situations, which does not mean those people would simply accept such a fate.
• Team Omega is a special science team put together by the chios council itself. To Chios, their work is what's most important and so they have been given the authority to use ressources where needed. Should they require force, they are to make use of the CMC. Noone is aware of their exact priorities, which often leads to disagreements and conflicts where the different parties are involved. Anyone who values their life should not trust them easily.
  

Furthermore, there are a couple of independant roles, that anyone may chose to take.

• Slaves are station property, they belong to Chios and are to be treated as valuable cargo. They have no real rights on the station and what happens to them is only of relevance when it reduces their market value.
• Slave traders visit the station looking for cargo to ship.
• Aliens. There are all kinds of aliens lurking deep inside the station. They get aboard over cargo vessels and are a common thing.
• Station security are independant mercenaries. Their purpose is to give support where it is needed. They answer to noone and generally disapear when their payment has arrived.
  
• Scientists work in the lab. They are mostly in charge of reprogramming and performing various scheduled experiemnts. Furthermore they give medical attention to those in need of it.
  

Finally I would like to point out something that many of you seem to forget occasionally: Chios is a criminal organisation and in criminal organisations there is no definitive law, no rules to protect you. People backstab each other, try to work towards their personal advantage, frankly they are on their own. Just keep that in mind when you think of running to any form of authority for help.

Thank you Oni Horan

That is what I hear a lot, I get so much nice feedback on this project that sometimes I almost feel guilty. Now obviously I'm responsible for creating it, but believing in it and making it possible is something for that you all have to thank someone different.
First of all, I'm not sure if anyone knows, but please keep in mind that the biggest supporter of this place is Wildefire Walcott. She runs Desperation Island (if you havent't checked it out before I suggest you change that because it's an amazing location in many ways) and back when she first saw the station she immidiatly decided to give her support to it. Let me tell you that without this decission of hers and her constant support none of this would ever have been possible, so don't hesitate to drop her a message and thank her, I'm dead serious too.
The second name might be more familiar to regular visitors, but she certainly deserves no less of your attention. Without Darien Caldwell the station would have shut down very quickly after it finally got started. Not only has she been very supportive beyond anything a landowner would have to be, only because of her seemingly infinite patience, next to all the trouble we have been causing to her sim and business, you guys can keep running around causing more trouble.
There is a third person who has made the start of this project possible, but she has decided to stay anonymous, so I will respect that.
It is tremendously satisfying that in this world so full of immature foolish clowns there are still these people who try to use their ressources to make it a bit better and I truly hope that we all will continue to make the best of their efforts.

Mysteries

It seems a new control panel has apeared on the bridge. I wonder what it could be doing? Much thanks go to Jaycii Veil for this awesome addition.

Shocking news!

Finally, after long last I have finished the Necronom collar that i started so long ago. You might have seen it before here or there, I certainly got enough requests for it to finish it. Its a futuristic energy collar, that has an energy leash to restrain the wearer within a radius of 5 metres and is also able to paralyze on demand. It is used during transport of slave, before programming of course and comes with an easily customizeable tag to show the freight-ID. Check out the bridge to get one.
Thanks go to Adora Congrejo this time for being the model, say hello when you meet her at the station.

Not even sure I should post this...

Darien found another movie with an uncredited apearance of the station, yay. there's a couple of them out there right now, but nothing to write home about... Still, I thought it was worth mentioning and if its just to bring you a few moments closer to death for my personal satisfaction.
I'm still thinking about making some sort of short movie of my own, but i think the lack of any sort of mimics or lip movement makes it very hard for the narrative and even if this... strange movie does nothing else, it does a good job at proving that.

Portable converter

Behind schedule with the conditioning of your freight because the programming unit in the lab is always busy? That's a problem of the past, because now there's a portable slave programming unit available, complete with remotely controllable sound and visual effects that can only be seen and heard by the wearer.
The portable converter is equiped with 5 seperate injectors, using various combinations of psychoactive drugs, it can repeat visual and audio stimuli and finally control the sense of orientation by influencing the ears.
As always available on a Necronom station near you!

Basic storyline

--Project Necronom - Space Colonization--
It is an ancient human dream to colonize vast space itself.
Humanity has expended over the galaxy for centuries, terraforming planets and creating equals to its former home. In order to reach the next step of existence however, the final move into space itself needs to be achieved.
It is estimated that over a mere timeframe of five genrations, humanity can reach the next step of evolution.
In an effort to bring forth this crucial development, the Necronom project has been initiated by a combined effort of the whole human race, even beyond the reaches of the UCE (United Colonies of Earth).Twelve space colonies, spread throughout the galaxy, were constructed to house humanities biggest hope.



--Organization Chios--
Space travel is a long, expensive and dangerous process. Ships travel for months. and years at times, to carry their cryogenically frozen passengers.
They pass through enourmously large areas of space which used to serve as the only natural protection throughout the early history of space travel, as it was nearly impossible to track down a traveling ship along its course. However, the recent exponential increase of trading between human conlonies has changed that and as frequently traveled, safe routes have been established this has brought forth a new form of crime, space piracy.
While other, less organized groups have focused on stealing common space freight, one organization, knowns as Chios, has started to emerge and has specialized on a new form of business: slave trade.
Ships are being overtaken on their routes and passengers taken captive for ransom. When a sufficient amount of credits cannot be gained from ransom these humans are taken in as loot, stripped of their former selves, often brainwashed and sold as slaves.During the countless wars among the different human colonies, many of the destroyed tribes have been enslaved completely and many of the larger colonies have started to tolarate enslavement for its economical benefit. Human work force in space is invaluable and so it is no surprise that the business of organization Chios is a beneficiall one.



--Space Colony Necronom VI--
Funded by colony Laurium of the UCE, space colony Necronom VI is part of the Necronom project and the smallest of the 12 stations. After only 10 years in space, the station has been completely abandoned by Necronom Inc. and any funds from Laurium for the project have been frozen. All of its personnel has been recalled and officially the station is rated as space debris.
The reason behind that is highly classified and access is strictly forbidden.Today the criminal organization called Chios has started to use the station as a base. A small crew has been assigned to maintain the station and supervise transport and trade of freight.
Human slaves are constantly being transported there for storage and brainwashing. New slaves, independant marauders and slave traders are common guests aboard the station. Lately the council of Chios has sent a team of scientists to perform studies, however it is not known to the crew what their exact purpose is onboard the station. From time to time they require slaves as test subjects in the lower regions of the station, but as none of these have ever returned it is unknown what exactly happens there.
It is only known that these lower sections seem to have been infected by an unknown organism, which is mostly ignored as it doesnt seem to influence the vital systems of the station. Caution is advised, as causalties have occured there in the past, but it does not appear to be a growing problem.
The crew of the Necronom is ordered to treat the slaves with great care, but since the station is very isolated that is widely ignored. Slaves are regularly abused to the crews liking and generally treated harshly, as to uphold their obedience. Certain higher-ranked slaves are naturally part of the crew and used as disposable workforce.

News

Katier Reitveld of the Metaverse Messenger, a newspaper about Second Life, recently paid the sim a visit to collect material for an article about Necronom VI for it's current issue. Be sure to check it out.

Chios slave auctions

Chios is glad to announce that the new trading outpost Necronom VI has been supplied with sufficient amount of freight over the previous months and is ready to start large business-operations.

As such we are proud to announce that in the near future we will be holding slave-auctions at announced times where stock will be available to the highest bidder.

Please look forward to the best quality of goods in this arm of the galaxy. We only trade the most elite selection of lifestock that will certainly fullfill all your requirements.

Our slaves are tidely prepared for shipment with a cleaned mind and in excellent health condition. Personality adjustments must be discussed in advanc since as you are surely aware not anything can be done with any person with current technology.

Look forward to the anouncement of the date and time in the near future.


Information for slaves:

The first official auctioner is going to be Candie Brooks. In order to apply please fill out the form (ask her for one in world) and send a copy to both Candie Brooks and Oni Horan.
Make sure that especially your background is detailed enough for the customer to clearly read out your story, where you came from and how you became a slave. However, also keep in mind that auctioned slaves have usually been freshly brainwiped and remember their past vaguely at best.

When you officially joined an auction you will become property of the Chios group so you can be sold to a client. You will officially receive a unique designation number to wear during this time. After the desired time of your service is over, your ownership will return to the group unconditionally and all rights of the owner cease to exist at that point. How the relationship to the group continues after that is completely up to yourself, you can be sold as many times as you desire.

The profits of the trade will be equally shared between the slave, the auctioner and Necronom VI, one third to each. It is strongly advised not to do this for the money however. We consider this an enjoyable RP event for everyone and according to this we will chose the criteria for stock selection.

Neko Eyes

I had a brief idea today and put together something I think could be popular.
Thanks to Elaria Paine for her tremendous patience with setting this up, still haven't quite got the hang of this, but it does show the effect nicely, watch the eyes:

It should be available shortly, if you have any color requests, I have an open ear.

Look into your heart

There's a new product finished, this time it's not by me however, but by lovely Mennisco Volitant, whom you might have seen working on new gadgets here or there, she can be found in her little workshop above the elevator, so be sure to say hello when you see her.
Here's a little video of her latest invention, truly lovely if you ask me and of course, available for sale on the bridge as of now:

Space Colony Necronom VI

Space Colony Necronom VI is an adult roleplaying game located in the online virtual world Second Life.
It offers a sophisticated and unique environment and a wide variety of story to dive into, constructed in a way to allow everyone to decide for themselves of how deeply he to dive into.
The community is open to everyone and I try my best to encourage a form of "light roleplay" that allows anyone to easily join in, for sexual roleplay and beyond. The location can be found here, all visitors are welcome. Be warned however, that the content might be offensive or disturbing to you.


People say that in the early days of the internet what grew it's popularity was gambling and pornography on websites and originally that was my view on Second Life as well. Then, when I was forced to look into it further creatively for a different project I realized that there might be more potential then I originally thought. As a result I decided to start a small project of my own, which has become this place.


I have three aims:

The first one is to experiment with a new form of gaming. Usually videogames are fully gamelike in nature, with clear objectives and goals. How to create an enviroment that simply simulates another existence to dwell into, without any superficial gamemechanics to simulate it is a question I want to answer for myself.

The second goal is a bit hard to explain. Second Life as it is known today is ultimately the most complex virtual enviroment for open thoughts and ideas. Be it politically, socially, or even sexually, people have a chance to express themselves in a very sophisticated way. For that however the proper enviroments need to be in place. For example, there is a very rich variety of fantasy locations all through Second Life, which in turn has brought forth a multitude of
things to do, thousands of outfits, philosophies and people to explore. Basically, any idea can be expressed within a fantasy context, while science fiction, a genre that from the very first day has always primarly served to express novel thoughts and ideas, seems to be quite lacking.
Now there is a good number of incredible scifi enviroments in Second Life, however, it just is not enough space for a big amount of individuals to exist within, so I do hope to add a part to that.
Every time someone shows me an avatar he himself created just to exist within the context of the station, every time someone wrote themselves their own background I feel that my goal is accomplished and I hope that this way I add my own two bits of variety to a world that is still so new and unexplored.

The final goal is to prove a point. It is said that there's two things to sell a medium, violence and sex. Now if you look at the gaming industry of today, it is clear which path has been chosen to follow. Why I certainly won't argue about the aesthetic value that violence can have, I find it deeply regretable that this new medium has chosen such a destructive path almost exclusicvely. Themes of love and sexuality have no place in this industry and in the few rare instances where that is different, it always leads to a scandal of gigantic proportions, that wanrs everyone in the US not to pursue that path any further. Now everyone knows the relation that americans have towards sexuality, so as a european I say let them take care of violence and hatred, while we explore the other path, just like its always been in every medium. That this can work is what I want to show.