Hey! I'm happy to announce the release of N° 9 Revision 550.
Wait... what!?
Yep, this is happening after literally just shipping revision 530, and it has nothing to do with bugs or fixes. Let me try to explain this.
I made five types of revision 530, one for Ami Trouble, Caelan Hancroft, Grey Mars, VariousArtists and for myself. These 530s are particularly robust types, and custom made for each creator to blend with their various collars perfectly. 530 is like concluding a big chapter, it is a fantastic shipping version. I really enjoyed making it, although I usually don't work like that at all. It took some self-control.
...but boy did it start to itch in my fingers when I was working so conservatively, just going for robustness above everything else. Holy shit.
Don't get me wrong. If you asked me, 530 is the best revision of collar I probably ever created. It's the ultimate people pleaser. It just works. It's kind of like an iPhone or something! Kind of the same like last year, that does exactly what it should and that exceptionally well.
When I worked with larger teams and not only together with my trusty engineer and best Montgomery Scotto, I used to say: "Don't worry mates, we will test it in production!" That gives me the good feels. Those were the days of open source. The good old days. The golden days! When you had no phracks to give and every other patch was a creative experiment. Jugend forscht, meine Freunde!
Alas, these times are over, Wendy has to be a professional Wendy these days, but does she really? Is that what the Second Life community expects of her? To be a professional? A level headed person? Someone who will never write melodramatic, longwinded posts unwrapping the inside of her emotional state to the outside, while upsetting all those creatures that dwell beneath the woodwork?
Wait... what!?
Yep, this is happening after literally just shipping revision 530, and it has nothing to do with bugs or fixes. Let me try to explain this.
I made five types of revision 530, one for Ami Trouble, Caelan Hancroft, Grey Mars, VariousArtists and for myself. These 530s are particularly robust types, and custom made for each creator to blend with their various collars perfectly. 530 is like concluding a big chapter, it is a fantastic shipping version. I really enjoyed making it, although I usually don't work like that at all. It took some self-control.
...but boy did it start to itch in my fingers when I was working so conservatively, just going for robustness above everything else. Holy shit.
Don't get me wrong. If you asked me, 530 is the best revision of collar I probably ever created. It's the ultimate people pleaser. It just works. It's kind of like an iPhone or something! Kind of the same like last year, that does exactly what it should and that exceptionally well.
When I worked with larger teams and not only together with my trusty engineer and best Montgomery Scotto, I used to say: "Don't worry mates, we will test it in production!" That gives me the good feels. Those were the days of open source. The good old days. The golden days! When you had no phracks to give and every other patch was a creative experiment. Jugend forscht, meine Freunde!
Alas, these times are over, Wendy has to be a professional Wendy these days, but does she really? Is that what the Second Life community expects of her? To be a professional? A level headed person? Someone who will never write melodramatic, longwinded posts unwrapping the inside of her emotional state to the outside, while upsetting all those creatures that dwell beneath the woodwork?
Wir müssen eine neue Wendy Starfall erfinden!
No, we don't. Someone has to be annoying, overly emotional, and melodramatic. Yes. It is not always the most grateful of roles to play, but it is my holy duty indeed to add the borderline and bi-polar to the Second Life grid. We need more tears, more drama and more insane.
Guys, this is important.
And how more self-defeating could I be than shipping two major release versions of product in a row? Not only is it an absurd amount of work, it also devours the entirety of my time, gives me no breaks, takes my sleep, and makes me feel like swollen-raw doormat. Mmmmn.
Guys, this is important.
And how more self-defeating could I be than shipping two major release versions of product in a row? Not only is it an absurd amount of work, it also devours the entirety of my time, gives me no breaks, takes my sleep, and makes me feel like swollen-raw doormat. Mmmmn.
I don't understand.
Perfect!
Now, let's take a look at revision 550. What could possibly be still important that isn't already in revision 530?
Now, let's take a look at revision 550. What could possibly be still important that isn't already in revision 530?
Steroids for Outfits & Strip
Right, so creating RLV powered outfits is now more simple than it ever was. You make an outfit with your SL viewer, and then drag and drop that outfit folder into #RLV/> Outfits. Unfortunately that leaves us with our BASE AVATAR during outfit change. Not only does that look ugly af, it's also un-smooth and takes longer to add than we knew it from Peanut Collar. So why not do it like we did in Peanut Collar?
We have new variables like BoM layer ranking, and we want to use actual outfits folders. Keep in mind that the outfits in my previous collars was really a feature that existed before SL even had outfits. We basically did then what the SL viewer later included as real outfits.
Remember Sumi Perl? She had the spark of this idea and created the first logic for the outfits feature. Sumi Perl. Kawaii hacker of legend.
The other thing is Strip. It annoys me thoroughly that Strip shows stuff like my mesh head, body parts and my AO. Why would anyone want to strip that? Wot kind of roleplay is dis!? Well. I could think of something. But let's not go there. Let me present the solution instead!
We have new variables like BoM layer ranking, and we want to use actual outfits folders. Keep in mind that the outfits in my previous collars was really a feature that existed before SL even had outfits. We basically did then what the SL viewer later included as real outfits.
Remember Sumi Perl? She had the spark of this idea and created the first logic for the outfits feature. Sumi Perl. Kawaii hacker of legend.
The other thing is Strip. It annoys me thoroughly that Strip shows stuff like my mesh head, body parts and my AO. Why would anyone want to strip that? Wot kind of roleplay is dis!? Well. I could think of something. But let's not go there. Let me present the solution instead!
> Stash
In 550 we have a new directory #RLV/> Stash where you can put all your stuff inside that is part of your outfits, and that you don't want to have stripped away during either outfit change, or through the Strip menu. Makes sense? If not, let me get into some more details.
When you unpack your mesh head, body, your hair, your Animation Overrider of whatever brand, you end up with folders in your inventory. Then when you create an outfit with your SL viewer, there are links to the items in these folders that update automatically even when you move those unpacked folders somewhere else. And this is what we do here, we move these folders into #RLV/> Stash.
This way we can let the Strip feature ignore the contents of these folders, while at the same time, we can lock the entire directory and all of its sub-directories during outfit change. We end up with a much faster, much smoother experience.
I'm sure some of you will wonder now if it really could be "so simple", and believe me, it is not that simple. We could end up with a memory situation or race conditions because the pacing is way different now, this logic has a different heartbeat so to say, and while I'm most confident that it is stable and well, that's not something I can perfect when testing on my own or with a small group of testers.
Features like that have to live and flourish with users, and can then eventually be tweaked and adjusted until they are perfect.
When you unpack your mesh head, body, your hair, your Animation Overrider of whatever brand, you end up with folders in your inventory. Then when you create an outfit with your SL viewer, there are links to the items in these folders that update automatically even when you move those unpacked folders somewhere else. And this is what we do here, we move these folders into #RLV/> Stash.
This way we can let the Strip feature ignore the contents of these folders, while at the same time, we can lock the entire directory and all of its sub-directories during outfit change. We end up with a much faster, much smoother experience.
I'm sure some of you will wonder now if it really could be "so simple", and believe me, it is not that simple. We could end up with a memory situation or race conditions because the pacing is way different now, this logic has a different heartbeat so to say, and while I'm most confident that it is stable and well, that's not something I can perfect when testing on my own or with a small group of testers.
Features like that have to live and flourish with users, and can then eventually be tweaked and adjusted until they are perfect.
Poses & Premium
Adding poses to your collar is such a personal thing, I figured I would make this a bit more convenient for customers of the premium version. That doesn't mean full version users have a hard time at all. They have to take their collar off, drop poses inside, and it's done. However, it comes with the inconvenience of having to take the collar off, which isn't a problem in full versions, but can be a problem in premium version N° 9's that have been welded, and for those customers I have a brand new, beautiful thing that you are going to love.
Fire Flower Deluxe
No, not the Discord Server. The Fire Flower Deluxe I'm talking about here is a new HUD that ships with Premium versions.
It can do a whole bunch of things. Firstly it can open your collar's main menu just like the normal Fire Flower HUD can do it. It can also filter and translate other protocols, such as the Virtual Disgrace protocol for the blindfold or gags. And now it can also hijack your Pose menu. From now on you don't have to add poses any longer to your collar. You just drop them into your Fire Flower Deluxe HUD.
The Fire Flower Deluxe will transform into a box when you put it on the floor. Just click it, drop your poses inside, or take any of them out, and pick it back up. That's all you need to do to add poses. Utility poses such as locking your high heels, or doing puppy crawl, are also included with Fire Flower Deluxe. This is a big quality of life improvement for everyone who chose the premium version, but there is more.
It can do a whole bunch of things. Firstly it can open your collar's main menu just like the normal Fire Flower HUD can do it. It can also filter and translate other protocols, such as the Virtual Disgrace protocol for the blindfold or gags. And now it can also hijack your Pose menu. From now on you don't have to add poses any longer to your collar. You just drop them into your Fire Flower Deluxe HUD.
The Fire Flower Deluxe will transform into a box when you put it on the floor. Just click it, drop your poses inside, or take any of them out, and pick it back up. That's all you need to do to add poses. Utility poses such as locking your high heels, or doing puppy crawl, are also included with Fire Flower Deluxe. This is a big quality of life improvement for everyone who chose the premium version, but there is more.
Personal Fragrance
Ever noticed that N° 9 looks like perfume? That's because it's precious. ♥
Besides the new Fire Flower Deluxe, Premium version customers get something truly special with 550, a script called Personal Fragrance.
Personal Fragrance can be added to any unscripted necklace, choker, collar, piercing, whatever you can come up with, to transform this item into a fully scripted premium version of N° 9. That's right. You can now turn anything into a new N° 9. You are no longer limited to collars that had some sort of scripting already installed. The only requirement for this to work is that the item is modifiable. Nice, right?
This isn't just big value added to the premium version, it also relieves mesh artists from the ungrateful job of having to script their meshes. I'm not talking about creators who specialized on fetish items, or those who vend collars as a substantial part of their business, but those artists who are getting requests from their customers to add collar scripts to this and that. Adding scripts is not as simple as it sounds, things might go wrong, people will want after sales support, and since the schism now also want different types of collar scripts.
Buying the boxed version of premium N° 9 lets customers do with it pretty much what they want, including installing it where they want, with the only requirements being that the un-scripted mesh is modifiable, and that you can only wear one item with N° 9 scripts at a time.
Besides the new Fire Flower Deluxe, Premium version customers get something truly special with 550, a script called Personal Fragrance.
Personal Fragrance can be added to any unscripted necklace, choker, collar, piercing, whatever you can come up with, to transform this item into a fully scripted premium version of N° 9. That's right. You can now turn anything into a new N° 9. You are no longer limited to collars that had some sort of scripting already installed. The only requirement for this to work is that the item is modifiable. Nice, right?
This isn't just big value added to the premium version, it also relieves mesh artists from the ungrateful job of having to script their meshes. I'm not talking about creators who specialized on fetish items, or those who vend collars as a substantial part of their business, but those artists who are getting requests from their customers to add collar scripts to this and that. Adding scripts is not as simple as it sounds, things might go wrong, people will want after sales support, and since the schism now also want different types of collar scripts.
Buying the boxed version of premium N° 9 lets customers do with it pretty much what they want, including installing it where they want, with the only requirements being that the un-scripted mesh is modifiable, and that you can only wear one item with N° 9 scripts at a time.
Why no creator kits?
Some might ask themselves: "Well, if that works, then why can't the same be done with creator kits? Shouldn't that be the same thing?"
The answer to that is, NO, this is not the same thing at all.
The N° 9 feature is set is something that Garvin Twine and I create, and that is unique to our products. I'm not talking about the open source elements that I still maintain despite myself. I'm talking about the features that make our product different to other products.
Unless you are living under a rock you should have noticed that there more types of collars now, which is a good thing, that is how it should have been all along, because it gives customers a greater choice and stimulates healthy competition. I want to compete with you.
Now without trying to sound arrogant. I'm still the leader of the pack, and what I invent is often taken and adapted by others. No matter if that's a blindfold with visual effects, or a strip feature, or even the way I name the auth roles in my collars, these standards are set by us.
But you need to understand that I don't strive to be the "leader of the pack". This might as well be you, dear engineer who is reading this right now. Maybe you took some idea that originated from me and refined it to something better, and this is a good thing. That's how we become better as a whole. Not by shoving collar business in a box down everyone's throat OC style, and then pretending this is "freedom".
This is not freedom. This is bullshit.
Make no mistake, things that have "freedom" in their name usually have some authoritarian and conservative flavor to them. If that's how you roll, less power to ya, the olden times are over. We want electric cars, get on a rocket to Mars, and collars that are unique and sexy-pants, not some run of the mill user-unfriendly motherload of a GNU that ruins the market and empowers business makers who give a flying about the kink and fetish subculture.
These are the times of nerdettes and nerds, my friends, and we want our TouchBound stuff, our Nanite Systems, we want Real Restraint (Marine Kelley still does make the best bondage sets), we want Meike Heston's Hug & Kiss HUDs, and Catznip and Alchemy SL Viewers.
And related to that we wish to choose our own gender, say what we want where we want (including this blog and my Discord), get a little (or totally) gay every once in a while, have multiple boyfriends (and girlfriends), and live the songs we love and the dreams we have.
If what we wanted was to make our Second Life eternal, we have to celebrate its strengths, and not lament its short-comings. That means to allow the platform, its users and its content to become more diverse and unique, so these snowflakes can turn avalanche!
The answer to that is, NO, this is not the same thing at all.
The N° 9 feature is set is something that Garvin Twine and I create, and that is unique to our products. I'm not talking about the open source elements that I still maintain despite myself. I'm talking about the features that make our product different to other products.
Unless you are living under a rock you should have noticed that there more types of collars now, which is a good thing, that is how it should have been all along, because it gives customers a greater choice and stimulates healthy competition. I want to compete with you.
Now without trying to sound arrogant. I'm still the leader of the pack, and what I invent is often taken and adapted by others. No matter if that's a blindfold with visual effects, or a strip feature, or even the way I name the auth roles in my collars, these standards are set by us.
But you need to understand that I don't strive to be the "leader of the pack". This might as well be you, dear engineer who is reading this right now. Maybe you took some idea that originated from me and refined it to something better, and this is a good thing. That's how we become better as a whole. Not by shoving collar business in a box down everyone's throat OC style, and then pretending this is "freedom".
This is not freedom. This is bullshit.
Make no mistake, things that have "freedom" in their name usually have some authoritarian and conservative flavor to them. If that's how you roll, less power to ya, the olden times are over. We want electric cars, get on a rocket to Mars, and collars that are unique and sexy-pants, not some run of the mill user-unfriendly motherload of a GNU that ruins the market and empowers business makers who give a flying about the kink and fetish subculture.
These are the times of nerdettes and nerds, my friends, and we want our TouchBound stuff, our Nanite Systems, we want Real Restraint (Marine Kelley still does make the best bondage sets), we want Meike Heston's Hug & Kiss HUDs, and Catznip and Alchemy SL Viewers.
And related to that we wish to choose our own gender, say what we want where we want (including this blog and my Discord), get a little (or totally) gay every once in a while, have multiple boyfriends (and girlfriends), and live the songs we love and the dreams we have.
If what we wanted was to make our Second Life eternal, we have to celebrate its strengths, and not lament its short-comings. That means to allow the platform, its users and its content to become more diverse and unique, so these snowflakes can turn avalanche!
We were talking about that release? Wendy?
Right. I got carried away for a moment.
Revision 550 is available on G9, N9, R9, T9, H9 and S9 channels via your collar's Update function.
You can check your channel in your collar's About menu, where it says stuff like Revision N9-530-NOIR, R9-530-LUNA, N9-530-HOPE, etc..
Teleport to the little or big temple, touch your Fire Flower, go to About, select Update and accept the inventory offer.
You can also get the new revision out of the box when purchasing either of the N° 9 core packages or a new N° 9 collar from me, but keep in mind that Fire Flower Deluxe and Personal Fragrance are only included with the non-transferable premium version.
When your collar is on the F9 (free) channel, you can swap it with a new freebie collar, or purchase a N° 9 full or premium version and upgrade it to revision 550 on channel N9 or R9. This time please understand that I don't want to argue with people who claim they bought something from me but indeed transacted with some other account or brand. I respond to dozens such queries after big releases when I really would deserve a break, and things usually don't go well. You are only my customer if you transacted with Wendy Starfall.
Finally those of you who are on the G9 or S9 channels please read carefully:
Customers of Gift type collars have a special transferable version that is created after every release. When installing the update these collars will no longer be transferable, so please be sure to have gifted them before any updates are installed. This is another thing that results in much support effort (manual swaps) after every update release, and I'm deciding with Luna how we handle that in the future.
The S9 channel are the collars by Ahegao, Archaic and Cae. Updates for the Cae collars are acquired at the Temple of the Collar through the collar's About menu, and the updates for the Ahegao and Archaic collars are also acquired via the collar's Update function but at the Ahegao and Archaic main stores.
Revision 550 is available on G9, N9, R9, T9, H9 and S9 channels via your collar's Update function.
You can check your channel in your collar's About menu, where it says stuff like Revision N9-530-NOIR, R9-530-LUNA, N9-530-HOPE, etc..
Teleport to the little or big temple, touch your Fire Flower, go to About, select Update and accept the inventory offer.
You can also get the new revision out of the box when purchasing either of the N° 9 core packages or a new N° 9 collar from me, but keep in mind that Fire Flower Deluxe and Personal Fragrance are only included with the non-transferable premium version.
When your collar is on the F9 (free) channel, you can swap it with a new freebie collar, or purchase a N° 9 full or premium version and upgrade it to revision 550 on channel N9 or R9. This time please understand that I don't want to argue with people who claim they bought something from me but indeed transacted with some other account or brand. I respond to dozens such queries after big releases when I really would deserve a break, and things usually don't go well. You are only my customer if you transacted with Wendy Starfall.
Finally those of you who are on the G9 or S9 channels please read carefully:
Customers of Gift type collars have a special transferable version that is created after every release. When installing the update these collars will no longer be transferable, so please be sure to have gifted them before any updates are installed. This is another thing that results in much support effort (manual swaps) after every update release, and I'm deciding with Luna how we handle that in the future.
The S9 channel are the collars by Ahegao, Archaic and Cae. Updates for the Cae collars are acquired at the Temple of the Collar through the collar's About menu, and the updates for the Ahegao and Archaic collars are also acquired via the collar's Update function but at the Ahegao and Archaic main stores.
All Apologies
I will conclude this release post with an apology.
I haven't been quite fair in something I said in public recently. I said that I was feeling very alone in everything I do here, and while that might have been true at this moment because I was feeling sad and impulsive, it is also true that I have amazing friends at my side.
Otto, Ami, Grey, Brutus, Ash and Sabina regularly check on me and ask me how I'm doing. You guys really care, and I wouldn't be doing this anymore if it wasn't for that love and care. How important Luna is to me I can't even describe in words. I'm sorry for what I have said.
I love you all, and it is my greatest privilege to be your friend.
Finally this also counts for members of Fire Flower who may not always approach me directly, but who obviously are with me in all this. It's my privilege that you choose to be a member of this community. I will never take you guys for granted. I truly make this collar for you.
I haven't been quite fair in something I said in public recently. I said that I was feeling very alone in everything I do here, and while that might have been true at this moment because I was feeling sad and impulsive, it is also true that I have amazing friends at my side.
Otto, Ami, Grey, Brutus, Ash and Sabina regularly check on me and ask me how I'm doing. You guys really care, and I wouldn't be doing this anymore if it wasn't for that love and care. How important Luna is to me I can't even describe in words. I'm sorry for what I have said.
I love you all, and it is my greatest privilege to be your friend.
Finally this also counts for members of Fire Flower who may not always approach me directly, but who obviously are with me in all this. It's my privilege that you choose to be a member of this community. I will never take you guys for granted. I truly make this collar for you.
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