Having once been a hardened addict of Sierra's "Red Baron" (the original, not RB2), I've had a yearning to add something to let my planes dogfight. A couple of problems stood in my way. First, regular guns require the ability to rez objects (the bullets), and most open spaces in SL are no-build Linden-owned land. Second, I didn't have the knowledge (or time) to design a way around that.

But this weekend, all the pieces came together and I bashed together what I call the "Terra Combat System". If a plane has this combat system installed, it can attack and be attacked by any vehicle that also has this system. It uses sensors rather than bullets, so bystanders are completely unaffected.

As of today, only three vehicles have this system installed, each with different hit points, which represents how many direct hits you need to destroy it: the Terra Cormorant (10 hit points), the Terra Airship 3 (30 hit points), and a free plywood demo plane (3 hit points). I've seen interesting scenes already, where an Cormorant takes on a passing airship or vice-versa. In that case, the airship usually loses, because it turns like a cow.

If you just want to go sight-seeing, you can just turn off the combat system and you're invulnerable.

The system is flexible enough to be extended to attachments and gun turrets. I plan to add the Terra Combat System to most of my vehicles, which should lead to some interesting ad-hoc match-ups. Imagine a hoverbike taking on a sub. Or a Futura heli-car taking on a WW1 biplane.

Grab a friend and drop by my shop in Abbotts to try the free demo. It has only 3 hit points, but it should give you a good idea of how it works.

Right. So yesterday at lunch I went foraging for food, as is my habit, and found myself at Subway. Well, I guess I can't really say that I "found myself" -- I didn't walk in and see myself already at the counter. What a strange expression.

Anyway, I ended up at Subway and ordered my usual chicken sub, but this time I splurged. I asked for bacon. Yummy, crispy, delicious bacon. Incidentally, it's a bad idea to write about food right before lunchtime. Anyway, when I got to the cash register, I had a shock when they told me the price: the sub was just under $10. That's about $2 more than the already expensive price of a chicken sub.

Why was it expensive? The bacon. Four strips of bacon, which my arithmetical skills tell me are roughly 50 cents each, raised the price to a criminal ten dollars. For a sandwich. What kind of rare and exotic pig does this stuff come from that it costs so much?

I was aghast, but paid it anyway. And the really annoying part of this is that I'm so hungry that I'll probably buy another today.

End of rant.

The problem with Second Life is that there's just too much stuff to do, and not enough time to do it. That's why my inventory silts up with projects that I start, but put on the back-burner so that I can work on something else. Someone reminded me today that I'd promised a new version of the magic carpet -- over a month ago. It's in my inventory, but needs a few adjustments before it's ready for general use.

Other things I started and haven't finished (yet):

• A 2-seat version of the hoverbike
  
• A high-prim spaceship that's inspired by Space 1999
  
• A sailplane
  
• A transformer (Flyte Xevious beat me to this one. Check out his vehicle in the Flight Shop.)
  
• A helicopter-style vehicle that's as big as a whale, code-named "Beluga" (I probably wont' finish that one)
  
• A new hot air balloon
  
• A new airship
  
• An auto-pilot controlled taxi network
  
• And, of course, PenguinWorld™ -- the antarctic-themed ocean sim where the herring are plentiful and everyone must wear a penguin avatar.

I might finish at least one of them before the year is up.

(Edit: the large, 6-seat magic carpet is now done. You can find it on Level 2 of Abbotts Aerodrome.)

I have only just realized that the links to previous entries is completely buggered. Thank you, Blogger, for telling us that the archive link page no longer gets updated in the new and "improved" Blogger.

In the meantime, to hold you until I fix this, here are some links to previous months of bloggishness here at Cubicle Dweller:

• May 2004
  
• June 2004
  
• July 2004
  
• August 2004
  
• September 2004

... except that today, I actually did something constructive. Yes, for the first time third time in my newfound career as a guy pretending to be a writer, I actually wrote something. Well, to be more specific, I wrote a thousand words of something, then wrote a few hundred more in notes that highlighted the fact that the first thousand words were completely wrong and that I should have written the notes first, then written the first thousand words. Well it's a learning process, I suppose.

When I was done writing, I messed around in the metaverse game, Second Life, long enough to create an entirely new type of airplane that consistently crashes shortly after takeoff. It's sure to be a big hit.

That done, I settled into watching a movie -- Hercules, starring Steve Reeves. Yes, it's another unfortunate movie where the men wear shorter skirts than the women and the main character's voice is dubbed in a gravelly bass that never quite synchs with the picture. Actually, I found it hard to watch and fell to writing a rambling blog entry to fill the time.

Tomorrow, I plan to revisit my new story and then avoid entirely any movies set in ancient Greece. It's a hard life, but thank goodness I don't have to see the grey interior of a cubicle. Not until Thursday, anyway.

If you haven't visited the MegaTower in BonnyDoon yet, do it now. This thing is big. It towers 768 meters above the ground and is one of the tallest (if not the tallest) inhabited tower in Second Life. This thing is tall. In its presence, women swoon and men feel insignificant.

I don't know how many floors it has but they are an interesting mix of residences, top-secret labs, and retail space. Attached to the tower is the University of Second Life. An elevator carries you to any floor, including the observation deck. (BASE-jumpers note: this is an excellent jumping patform!)

Hank Ramos has something special here. I moved into the 8th floor a couple of weeks ago, and liked it enough to rent a few parking spots next to his new airstrip.

To find the MegaTower in Second Life, press CTRL + F to open the Find window. Search the Places tab for "MegaTower" and click Teleport.