cyver

Abaddon City
 

Gritty streets, rundown facades, a torn slip of a propaganda poster flapping in the wind, a buzzing larger-than-life screen showing off animated Coca-Cola logos, graffitti on the walls, freshly lit, but orphaned smoking cigarettes in ashtrays on barcounter tops … everything overtowered by a high-tech skyscraper reminiscent of the Half-Life 2 Combine Tower—must have been a lot of work to get all that right, to finally create the real thing in Second Life (SL). Most of the island of Merricks Landing 2 is covered by Sector 13 of Abaddon City. To me the most perfect cyberpunk ambience in whole SL … and I already have seen Devil’s Moon, Nexus Prime, Shalida Bay, and the post-apocalyptic landscape of The Wastelands. Geometry and textures are gamelevel-designer standard, not a notch below. The architecture, the furniture, and the countless details are pure class. Effects and scripts as well. When you are desperately seeking for the experience of flying through a large window pane, the shattering shards flying around you, then go to Abaddon, enter Bar Substance—the place’s Gentleman Loser, where hard men fight in pubs, get mixed up in a brawl, and there you go. But there are also way more peaceful delights at Substance, like dancing to the tunes of the jukebox, your avatar moved by high-quality motion-captured animations.
 

Sector 13
 

Sector 13 is the work of Detect Surface, who really knows his stuff. Go and check out his weblog, and you will know what I mean by ‘the real stuff’, seen from the perspective of a game modder. The place is also home of Detect’s shop D&D Creative Labs, where you can buy his amazing creations like the Kravatac at bargain prices.
 

D&D Creative Labs
 

Let’s listen to Detect himself:
 

The first ever Cyver Armour to appear, was the highly detailed Kravatac unit. Crab-like in appearance, bulky turbines attached to his shoulders and a tiny robot in his stomach area. This would soon spawn a trend that kicked off a whole line of creations that came under the same name.
 

As a kid, I was influenced and inspired by the series, Guyver. A manga animation that was highly popular all over the world, that gave birth to various movies and maybe 10 years later, a 3rd series in Japan. To me, the whole idea of a bio armor was very interesting and to say the least, very cool lol.
 

Guyver kicked ass as a kid…
 

So that really gave me the idea for the name, Cyver. The units I created, were not bio boosted, nor did they hide somewhere in the 20th dimension, tapping you on the back now and again, asking “Can I come out now? I wanna kick ass!”. The Cyvers are basically armor that push the boundaries of SL when it comes to design and texture.

Bar Substance
 

The Kravatac is the first thing in SL I am longing to buy. While I am writing this lines my avatar dances his ass off on the other screen—earning money, just 125 L$ to go. People tell me that the “Refract” suit is the best Detect Surface has made so far, both mesh- and script-wise. Furthermore I heard through the grapevine that Detect is about to release yet another “six huge things.” Things to come. Furthermore, if, and I say if, I ever will be ready to rent a space in SL, it will be the appartement above Bar Substance, because that’s the kind of people you meet downstairs:
 

Battlesuits
 

Android
 

And then there is yet another strange thing. Whenever I visit Merricks Landing 2, the map shows me two other people, always at the same spot. I wandered through all levels of the building there, even went below, to the sea’s surface, as I suspected some underground system, looked for a skybox above (there is none), and never could find anyone at the spot the map indicates … ghosts in the Sim.
 

D&D Creative Labs
 

Share
  • Post a comment

    Threaded commenting powered by interconnect/it code.