Pre-Paying for Premium

June 9, 2019 Claire de Lune-VonLeave a comment

Disclaimer: I’m mostly posting this as a note for myself/documentation, as I’m sure this is old news to seasoned SLers. But, hopefully it’s useful to others!

After the news of all the SL changes came out at the end of May, I followed a lot of the replies to Grumpity’s post on the forums. People started mentioning the cost savings of “land alts,” which I’d never used before, so I started looking into what that entailed. Basically it’s using a premium account solely to take advantage of the free 1024m of mainland that comes with it. The avatar donates their 1024m to a group they’re in that owns mainland, which negates the need to pay for the parcel. If the parcel is larger than 1024m, the group owner is required to pay for the remainder, unless additional land is donated.

In my case, my new mainland parcel is 2048m, so I’d need 2 premium accounts to offset the cost — luckily I have 2 alts that I never use (my main uses her 1024m for Bellisseria). With the cost of premium rising from $72 to $99/year on June 24th, all users have the option to pre-pay for an extra cycle at the lower price before that date. Forking over $216 for 3 accounts at once to take advantage of this makes me cringe a little … but the value is in the stipend:

Things Not Changing:
2048m mainland parcel = $13/month = $156/year (without premium)
Weekly stipend: 300L = 14,400L yearly = ~$60

Old Plan:
Premium account (annual plan): $72
$72 – $60 = $12 total
$12 x 2 premium accounts: $24

New Plan:
Premium account (annual plan): $99
$99 – $60 = $39 total
$39 x 2 premium accounts: $78

The answer is obvious — while it’s a lot of money up front, using “land alts” to offset mainland costs definitely saves money, even on the new plan! I’d much rather pay $78 than $156. Plus, if my main account runs low on lindens, I can grab extra from my alts with their stipend.

Another perk of group-owned land is the automatic 10% land bonus. For example, my mainland parcel is 2048m, but I now have an extra 205m of mainland to use.

Last weekend I spent time fiddling with my land group, switching my mainland parcel to be group-owned, and upgrading my 2 alts to premium. I also plan to pre-pay for all 3 of my accounts *cringe* sometime before the 24th. Side note: When a parcel is changed to group-owned, not all of the land settings are preserved, so make sure to double-check them afterwards. I didn’t realize I needed to do that, so some things were off for a few days.

Happy premium-ing!

Second Life

New Main Store Location!

May 25, 2019 Claire de Lune-VonLeave a comment

As I mentioned on Flickr earlier this week, I’ve decided to move my main store back to the mainland! After getting a home in Bellisseria, I realized I missed the community feel and expansiveness that comes with a continent. I also don’t need an entire sim — or the rental fees that come with it — though I did enjoy the prims, land options, and less lag.

This time I wanted to be in a place I loved, so I made sure to thoroughly inspect the property lines & neighborhood before buying (something I didn’t really do for my first mainland experience). I also wanted a place I’d be happy to call home, in the unlikely event of my store closing.

After checking out a bunch of locations, I noticed a forum thread for a 1024 plot in Nautilus. But not just any plot — a double prim, 4-way protected plot. I’d never seen that much “protection” before, so I went to investigate. On arrival, I was greeted with a parcel that bordered a huge Linden park, which in turn bordered a canal. The rest was surrounded by wide Linden walkways, save for a shared border with an adjacent parcel. These walkways were raised a couple meters above the land, so they also acted as walls, and included a set of stairs down to the parcel level.

Then I noticed the adjacent parcel was for sale from a different person. And I realized that would be perfect … 2048 meters, 1400ish prims, 100% protected, and with walkways that allow for breathing room from the neighbors. Plus direct access to a park that takes up half the region! Now, Nautilus isn’t cheap, but I felt like all these perks were worth it — and after flying around the continent, it was one of the least expensive parcels there. The only cons are neighbors with breedables, but I’m hoping they disappear eventually.

I gave myself a couple days to think about it and keep looking around, but I kept coming back. So I knew I needed to act — as long as I never ever move again 🙂 I’m still putting the finishing touches on everything, but come visit the next time you’re in-world!

Sales

Lunistice Anniversary

April 28, 2019April 28, 2019 Claire de Lune-VonLeave a comment

Hard to believe for me, but Lunistice will be 1 year old on April 29th! That was the day I uploaded my first skin to the marketplace — I opened my Water Horse shop about a week later. To celebrate, from now until the end of the 30th, everything in-world is 50% off 🙂 This includes gachas & event items (except those for Relay for Life at Fantasy Faire). Visit my main store here!

Note that vendors will display full price, but will give a refund after purchase. Thank you all for a year that was a mix of so many things, but most importantly — horses and art!

Teegle

Teegle Eyes & Unicorn Horns

April 26, 2019April 26, 2019 Claire de Lune-VonLeave a comment

After getting myself a Unicorn Teeglepet at Fantasy Faire — which I love — I have a renewed energy to make Teegle textures! Last weekend I converted my Solstice Eyes to Teegle, and this week played around with the unicorn applier so it can add my glitter Sparkle horns (without affecting the fluff).

Photoshop-wise, the eyes take up a bit more of the canvas than Water Horse, and need to be rotated 90°. I always find it amusing when textures are not oriented the same way in SL as they are in Photoshop. For example, moving the eye up in Photoshop moves it to the left in SL. Imagine if we needed to do that while making body coats! Of course I have no idea if it was intentional by the creators, but I’ve noticed it in multiple brands.

The horns were pretty self-explanatory, but bigger than Water Horse’s so I needed to update my textures a little bit. I’m excited to finally add some new vendors to my Teegle shop!

Events · Teegle · Water Horse

Fantasy Faire

April 18, 2019April 17, 2019 Claire de Lune-VonLeave a comment

Fantasy Faire 2019 is here! This is my first year being part of the Faire, so it’s been a crazy couple of weeks trying to finish everything I wanted to finish, plus decorate my shop space. I’m on the same sim that Jinx is sponsoring (Faireholm), which is a nice bonus! A handful of other horse creators also ended up there.

I’ve created 2 different items (1 in five colors), for a total of 6 vendors that have 100% of their sales going to Relay for Life! Some of my family members have been directly affected by cancer, so I wanted to have more than the minimum of 2 RFL vendors. For all bento and animesh Water Horses, I have a new Muted Mist body coat collection — inspired by Faireholm’s sun theme:

Lake Mist Body Coat
Ivory Mist Body Coat
Cherry Mist Body Coat
Pine Mist Body Coat
Lilac Mist Body Coat

Then for Teegle, by request, I’ve converted my Literary Chalk tattoo over from Water Horse:

Literary Chalk Tattoo

Visit my shop directly here! Then take a stroll around Faireholm (built by Kayle Matzerath), and take in all the Faire & creator amazingness that awaits you. I’m especially excited for the debut of Teegle’s new unicorn Teeglepet!

The Faire runs from today at 12 pm SLT until May 5th. For a complete list of all the events, sponsors, designers, and so on, visit Fantasy Faire’s official site!