submitted by Luscious Starship
While surfing countless waves with countless boards to find the perfect ride, I found myself wanting a board that I could change completely based on my mood regardless of where I was. I
love the currently available surf boards by SSi, HP, and Action but really wanted a board that was specifically made for me and the way I surf (which in my case is fast and crazy)! So starting the week of the wonderful Festival of Surf II, I started working on
creating my own surfboard script. By the end of the festival I had completed a beta functional board which was available FREE at the Festival.
On July 2nd, I finalized the features and settings of the board which is now available for the rest of you! The result is a very basic, yet super fun, and extremely customizable surfboard that can behave and look almost any way you desire. The board design is very simple, it's a single prim; a flattened sphere and that's it! This basic board i
s and always will be offered as copy/mod to the surfer because the idea is to make this basic board *YOURS*!
Initially I just wanted to make a board that surfed REALLY well and that could surf in whatever way the user wanted to surf. So really I've just created what might be called a "surfboard engine". It doesn't have a lot of fancy visual effects like water splashing or wipeouts *yet*, but my intention was to leave as much as much as possible completely up to the user as far as how the board looks visually. Since the board is copy/mod, you can basically make the board transparent, and then attach a different sculpty for the board shape and/or design as well as attach particle generators and fins etc to make the the board look however you want it to look while maintaining the same surfing characteristics.
As far as how it surfs, I've tried to make this board something that you can grow with and will grow on you as well. Everyone has a different surfing style. Some people like to ride smoothly across the wave face, some like to spin and carve out crazy patterns on the waves, others like to fly off the top of the waves or do loops on the waves, and really crazy people (like me) like to jump off the wave and into the next sim while doing a one-handed upsidedown fist pump! And then there are those who just want to paddle on the board and let the wave take them wherever it takes them! In all cases I think this is the board for you!
The board has so many settings on it it might make your head spin! By default though it comes set in a "Normalized" mode. This means by default, the board behaves in a predictable and fairly easy to control manner which I guess is subjective but basically comes down to a board that has the speed of an HP5 board, but the turning feel closer to an SSi board. There are 8 other presets for the board which go from paddle/small wave mode, SSi-like, HP-like, Super Foo like ( i.e. will make your board spin Mark Foo style! ) and "c" or light speed (exponential acceleration).
The presets are basically fixed settings for the 6 parameters that can also be manually altered via the Right click "* Menu *" on the board. There are 3 speed settings: Surf Speed, Turn Speed, and Swim Speed. These alter your: Speed when surfing on a wave, how fast your turn on water, and how fast you paddle respectively. There are also 3 balance settings: Wave Spin, Wobble, and Banking. These alter how fast you: turn on a wave, how quickly your board levels itself in the water, and how much your board leans into turns (smaller is more banking). The presets are created to go from "slow" to "fast" though you'll probably want to tweak some of the parameters to suit your exact surfing preferences. Of course since the tuning parameters are open ended, this board can do some CRAZY stuff! And going "off-world" can become common occurence if you use a super fast setting.
The controls on the board are relatively normal in that steering, acceleration and basic board control are the same as on an SSi, HP or Action board. The PgUp (or "e") still tips the front of the board up for when you are trying to execute a loop de loop or turn faster while banking into a turn. Swimming underwater doubles your forward speed so holding the PgDn and UpArrow buttons at the same time will save you time getting to the beginning of the wave as well.
Access control is also improved because when you allow "group" or "all" access, anyone who then has access to the board ALSO has complete access to the entire board's menus (except the access menu of course!).
One of the major differences of this board is that is does NOT require contact with a wave called "Wave 2.0" in order to function. It will ride on ANY physical object contact including other surfboards! I think in the future the board may look for "Wave 2.0" as PART of the name of the wave (but not the EXACT name of the wave) so that it only pops up on waves, but it will never be locked down to JUST one name because that is what is preventing the current generation of wave generators from switching between multiple wave types easily.
The board is initially being offered very inexpensively as copy/mod for $L288 at Freeport (next to Tsunami Beach), Waven Cajun (next to Bundoran Reef), and at the Monkey Cove residents area. Mick Lunasea's Surfcrazy is the first 3rd party designer to use the script in his own boards and is selling no copy/no mod boards for $L199. The idea behind the pricing is to get more people to join the SL surfing community and make their own custom designs and modifications. Designers who wish to sell their own designs using the Luscious Surf Design script should contact me, Luscious Starship directly. There is a Board Rezzer at Tsunami Beach that will let you try all of the features for free at Tsunami Beach as well.
I hope you all enjoy the board and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for new designs and additions as well as the killer surfing you'll do after tuning your board just the way you like it! =) I'd also like to say thank you to Mick Lunasea, Figger Arun, Painless Skytower, Colleen Brennan, oldsurferdude Danitz, Tauri Tigerpaw, Leogarto Burt, Sebastian Saramago, Syx Toshi, Tsunami Surf, and everyone else who I've buggered about surfboards and testing the board before its release, I couldn't have made it without you!
Tsunami Beach Store:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/FREEPORT/7/216/23
SurfCrazy Store:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/JJ%20Lanes%20II/161/228/24
Waven Cajun Bundoran Reef Store:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/21/247/24
Monkey Cove Resident Area
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Monkey%20Paw/227/156/22
Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/luscious.starship/LusciousSurfDesignLSDSurfboards?feat=directlink
- Luscious
Posts
2 comments:
I got a chance to test drive one of Luscious's new boards at Tsunami and OMG it was like riding a lightning bolt! The board is super quick and turns very responsively. Of course like every visit at Tsunami I slammed face first into one of the pier posts on my last wave. My trademark move, lol! Definatly get out to Tsunami and give this board a try. Luscious has truly outdone herself, and with all the custom settings and ability to add your own textures you'll have endless fun! And at $288L for a copy/mod, that's a deal you can't pass up! Great work Luscious!!!!!
Don't forget you signed that waiver on all dental expenses Jimbo.
Please do stop by and try the new board at Tsunami. Luscious has had a lot of fun developing it and now it is time for everyone else to have some fun trying it out.
We also have a SSi board rezzer and an Hp5 board rezzer. Tsunami is a good place to stop by and try out various surfing options. Another good thing is that after you decide which board you like we have some of the best surf shops on SL for purchasing one.
For a very limited time and I do not know how much longer you can also buy the limited edition RFL surf for the cure ssi board from a vendor near the rezz area. This is one of the best long boards I have ever tried and all proceeds go to the charity.
I heartily welcome the entire SW community to stop by Tsunami Beach and rip some waves.
Post a Comment