I have not updated this blog in a while, mostly because I had a lot on my plate and not much to say... So just to keep you informed (and to point out that I'm not dead !), here are the things I'm planning to do in the near future :
Ringgag
I have just released a new toy, a ringgag, which behaves mostly like the ballgag I have made... oh... more than a year and a half ago ! That's not a plan, it is done and released by now, but it was also for me a way to introduce a few improvements such as faster dialogs and a better control over the IM restriction. Improvements that will find their way into my other products eventually, of course. Which brings me to the next point...
Updates
The menus on the ringgag are faster, responding immediately now. This is due to some work I've done on *every single script* of mine that uses a menu, i.e. the plugins, the plugins browser and the core script. In every single product ! The work itself was not hard, trivial even, but the number of scripts was huge. And now, I am bound to update everything.
However, this only impacts the root items of every set (right wrist cuff etc), so I will make it clear in the update notecard that old secondary items (all the ropes you had to resize to your shape for example) will still be valid and compatible without any loss. I'm hearing a few sighs of relief from here. Hehe.
Restrained Elegance
You may know that name already, this is the name of a nice bondage website that has been around for a while now. Very classy, fun and creative, it also shows one of the best sets of shackles ever, the "Heaven's Hell" as it is called by its manufacturer. It looks so good that I have reproduced it here in SL.
It is working nicely, had a lot of very positive feedback from the people who tested it, and will be released in the next few days. You might think "Shackles again ? No way !" but these are quite different from the Serious Shackles. Lighter, classier, not meant for heavy duty but rather for romantic D/s. They will also be cheaper because they don't have elbows, thighs or belts. And they look gorgeous ! All round and polished, they are my favorite product at the moment.
As my friend Ollalla suggested while I was struggling to find a nice name for them, why not calling them "Restrained Elegance" like the website ? I asked the webmaster, and he accepted !
So here they are, the new Restrained Elegance shackles. They function very much like the Serious ones, including the Spy plugin and its remote, but the arms poses are entirely new, and the legs poses have been reworked (a sexy "Lie", a lower "Kneel", a lower "Hogtie" and a new "Hogside" replacing the "Spread"). And new chains ! And and and... but I'm just making you drool, let's show you a pic or two !
Other products
Despite what some people may think, I have not stopped making stuff at all, but it is true that I focused mostly on the RestrainedLife viewer and a couple other projects (the Banishment Program and the Maze). And I did not want to release the same stuff over and over again. Granted I always use the same system (who doesn't), but you may have noticed that no two products of mine are identical. They all have some value added compared to the others. This is not going to change, so I'm planning to release more stuff in the future, provided I can make it unique enough. I have a few ideas already. In fact my fingers are aching to make them now. lol.
HUD detaching
Lately more and more people have been experiencing this annoying "... has removed her HUD cache !" message repeatedly. This is happening in laggy places, mostly in Openspaces, and is due to the timeout I've set to be too short. Well it is more than long enough to handle normally laggy areas but when it gets ugly, the HUD gets dropped. You may wonder "why a timeout at all, since the HUD alerts the cuff when it's detached ?", well because there are cases when the cuff is simply unable to receive the alert. Not because it is badly scripted, but because of the way SL is made. For instance after a bad TP, some HUDs or other attachments just crash, without a word. But they stay there, zombified. A timeout is the only way to get rid of it automatically.
So a longer timeout is in order, I am testing it in very very laggy places, and despite having made it 3 times longer, I'm still getting the error (only 3 times less often). Once fixed, it will be part of the big update.
Documentation
I am amazed at how savvy some users are about my stuff, and/or about the RL viewer. Seriously. I may not talk much on my own group (mostly because I'm busy, but also because SL does not even allow me to, and no it has nothing to do with a gag), but I'm listening a lot, and what I hear there is very gratifying ! Let me just put a few things straight first : My Manuals Suck. Or rather, they are too light and do not explain everything, far from it. This is mostly on purpose actually, what I want is to tell the minimum to point the user in the right direction... and then they're on their own to experiment ! People don't like to read and there are so many things to say anyway.
So the most adventurous ones get to discover more and motivate the others to play with some less known features too. It is a nice way to build a community. But it also means more very basic questions on the group chat and people get tired to explain the same things again and again. So I want to find the time to revamp my manuals and make them more readable, because frankly, My Manuals Suck. lol. And more tutorials here, too, because it's easier to read here than on a notecard, especially when there are pictures to download.
RLV
You may have noticed that updates to the RLV are getting sparse now, as it's stabilizing. I do not plan to add new features forever, and have almost added all the features I wanted to add. But I'm working on v1.15 with a few new commands and a couple of bugfixes :
* "@accepttp:UUID=add" to let the Dom/me force-tp the sub to them through the friends list, without the ability to decline or even to cancel. In other words, the Dom/me becomes like a Linden to the sub in this regard. As far as my scripts are concerned, I think I will just update the Allow plugin to take this into account. It will not supercede or deprecate @tpto, because the former teleports to an avatar, whereas the latter teleports to an arbitrary location. Both are complimentary.
* "@getenv_...=nnnn" to get the current Windlight environment settings. What replaces "..." is the same as what is after "@setenv_".
* "@getstatusall=nnnn" to get the full list of restrictions currently applied, regardless of the objects applying them. I am torn on this one... at the time of this writing I am inclined to code it, but tomorrow I might find a good reason against it again.
* "@getinvworn=nnnn" to get the list of folders under a folder in the inventory, with an additional information per folder saying whether at least one item under it is worn or not. This is just for convenience, if it's too hard to do I won't do it.
* Fix for the misordered HUDs attachment points that make the viewer believe that "wear on Top" means "wear on Top Left" and mess your favorite hud.
The names of the commands listed hereabove are very likely to be final, there is very little risk I'm would change them now.
Keep in mind that the more scripts that use the RLV the more thought I must give to adding new features. Because often that means additional update work for many scripters.
Fun
And last but not least, I wanna have fun. It may sound strange, but it is hard for someone with a well-known name like mine to have careless fun in a public place with casual players. It always ends up with "I love your work !". Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate every single compliment and praise, even if I suck at taking them (I just blush and lose my words... pathetic !). But in the middle of a game... I'm not a creator anymore. Either a powerful Domme or a bratty sub, but definitely not working on anything. One day I was tied up at Ropers and unable to speak, while someone was insisting in knowing what product comes next. I finally left, totally turned off, and did not come back that day. So don't talk about work, please !
That or I get interrupted by an IM from someone having a problem or a question, and talking business is not the best way to get me into the mood. When I'm able to answer at all ! Because the biggest victim of my own work in SL, is me. lol. It is a shame that people don't read profiles because I would make it clear that when I'm playing, I'm definitely not working. And my only alt is meant for work, precisely, so I play as me.
So these are my plans. I have certainly forgotten half of them, but you get the idea already.
Have fun !
Marine
Edit : I have released the Restrained Elegance shackles earlier than planned. They were ready, I was bored, had a little time... so here they are !
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