2013-07-24

Dance this Saturday

Time for another Raven Park dance and, we think, time for another dance with a science fiction there. This time around we're heading for a post-apocalyptic utopian future where money doesn't exist (except where it does), where humans are all about peace and exploration (in their ships armed to the teeth) and where you'll find no finer examples of the art of retcon.

Yes, that's right, we're going boldly (or is that boldly going?) into the world of...


No matter if your thing is ST:ToS, ST:TNG, ST:DS9, ST:V or ST:E (or, if you like, those new films that are all about lens flare), everyone is welcome. Pick your uniform, your alien race, whatever takes your fancy, and join us:

Date: Saturday July 27th
Time: 4pm to 6pm SLT
Where: Raven Park
Music by: Eve Terr

Don't miss out. You know we'll have all the best Trek-themed tunes!

Free gift at The Velvet Thorn this Friday

This Friday (26th) The Velvet Thorn are having a dance themed on all things related to mad scientists. When asked if we wanted to take part, and knowing the theme, we just had to say yes. So the last week or so we've being working on something a bit silly, a bit evil and, we hope, something that says "mad scientist".

Come along to The Velvet Thorn on Friday, from 2pm until 4pm, and look for this:


Slap the board and you'll have your very own Z&A Steam-Powered Electrostimulator.

And don't forget to practice your evil laugh.

2013-07-14

Second Life SNAFUs dance

Last night's Second Life SNAFU dance was all kinds of fun. And I think everyone agreed that we should never deliberately look this bad again. So, for the first and last time, here's a handful of photos of Raven Park residents and friends enjoying and celebrating when Second Life can go wrong (complete with not-quite rezzed textures for the skybox, fake ruthed Lindens and a floor that kept disappearing):












We'll be back with another dance in two weeks. And, all being well, looking a lot better and a lot sharper. ;)

2013-07-11

Four new products

Today we're delighted to announce the release of four more products that "reboot" some of our very original builds as mesh and with the new Z&A device scripts. This time we've made a new take on our sphere cage. It comes in two versions. The first is a floor-standing version (in both light and dark woods to match all the other new products):



and also in a ceiling-hanging version:



The ceiling version uses a particle chain that can, if you wish, be turned off. When you do this it also hides the ceiling anchor point. This means that it's easy for you to add your own method of hanging the cage to suit your own taste. This version also has a facility to spin the cage (at three different speeds in two different directions).

Also, much like with our ceiling and floor chain, the owner's setup menu also contains an option to raise and lower the ceiling anchor point to help fit it to your ceiling. And, as always, the object has modify rights so you can make it "just so".

As always these new products are available from the new product area in the main store and on our main marketplace shop. You'll also find them available at some of our mall locations and also through many of our affiliates.

2013-07-09

Dance this Saturday

Given the fact that this week obviously sees the end of Second Life as we know it, again, we've decided that the theme for this Saturday's dance should match. Think back to all the times the Lab have broken stuff, or all the times the doom-merchants have called something new the end of Second Life and it turned out.... not so bad. Think of all the times you've Ruthed, lost attachments, had stuff go missing, had your region go missing, etc...

Yes, in celebration of the start of the rollout of SSA...


...the theme is:

Second Life SNAFUs

Come as Ruth. Or all grey. Or a cloud. Or someone who left Second Life for "better" grids. Or... Your choice. Something that represents the grid's best or most common cock-ups.

Or, you know, come dressed normally with a non-SSA viewer. ;-)

So, here's the details:

Date: Saturday July 13th
Time: 4pm to 6pm SLT
Where: Raven Park
Music by: Eve Terr

Server side appearance is coming

Important information for those who live on and play on Raven Park and who shop at Z&A Productions:

Tomorrow's release candidate server rolling restarts will see server side appearance (SSA) turned on for LeTigre regions. Shackles, the region that Raven Park and Z&A Productions are based on, is a LeTigre region.

Unless there's a rollback due to problems with the deploy, or it is cancelled before deploy (both can and have happened in the past), by the middle of tomorrow (the 10th), the way that avatars are "baked" will have changed on the region. Because of this you must ensure that you have an up-to-date viewer that is compatible with SSA.

The latest version of the official Linden Lab viewer is of course compatible and most of the popular third party viewers have also been updated.

2013-07-05

Copy permission products

When it comes to products such as our bondage furniture/devices we've always made a point of making them available with transfer/modify permissions. The main reason for doing this, at least in the early days, was to allow for gifting of products purchased in the main store. Also, because we've always tried our best to price our products so they're very affordable, there's been less pressure for copy permission because bulk purchases won't break the bank.

That's not to say that we'd never make products available with copy permission. When asked, and for a price that reflects the fact that we're essentially selling an infinite number of copies of that product, we've generally been happy to make up a copy version. In the time that we've done this we've also recognised that there are some products that stand out as being the most-requested in copy form.

Because of this, starting today, we're kicking off a long-term project to make copy-permission versions of some products always available for purchase in-store. These will be sold alongside the usually-permed versions and they will normally sell for three times the price of the transfer version. The choice of products that get a copy-permission version will be dictated by which have been requested most in the past and which make most sense with copy-permission. It's also worth noting that only devices based on the new script engine will be getting copy-permission versions.

Please note that we're only making copy versions available in-world, in our main store. Any product with a copy version will have a smaller vendor board with it that sells the copy edition:


The first batch of products to have a copy version made available are the new-style cell beds that we released a week ago. As time goes on we'll add more.