Chandra’s Page

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My favorite vehicle in SL got an extensive facelift. The newest Flying Tako is a sailboat powered by Second Life’s own wind, and it is both fun to sail and easy on the eyes.

The Tako 3.1 sails just as nicely as its predecessor, the 2 series. You have the option of propelling the Tako with SL’s native wind, a fixed “practice” wind, or “race” wind provided in official races. But this is all old news to anyone who’s sailed a Tako before.

New to the 3.1 are spinnaker and centerboard controls. If you’re running with the wind, you can pop out the spinnaker and boost your speed significantly. The spinnaker even goes dark when it collapses due to lack of wind. You can also raise the centerboard to eke out a little more speed at the expense of some sideways drift, a feature that also comes in handy when navigating shallow waters.

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Not only does the new Tako handle well, it’s been redesigned, with new prims and new textures. The overall effect is a big improvement over the rather boxy and cartoonish original. The sail is still customizable with your own texture, but you won’t feel embarrassed using the original, either. It still lacks a bit of detail, but given the customization options, that can be remedied by the consumer.

Another significant improvement is the addition of two HUD attachments. One is a pretty standard set of control buttons that appears in the lower right of the screen, which provides a mouse-based alternative to chatting commands at the vessel. You can even customize the buttons with your own commands.

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The real beauty, though, is the wind and data display HUD in the upper left. You get the same wealth of data available in the above-the-mast display of the older Tako, with an additional graphic indicator of wind direction, sheet setting, and centerboard position. It’s nice to be able to tell at a glance what the wind’s doing, without having to translate digits into direction; removal of math, even trivial math, makes sailing much more pleasant.

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This welcome update to the Tako is rounded out by other convenient features, like the ability to set the sail in “drying” mode when you leave the vessel, showing off your fancy custom sail as the boat lies idle at the dock. The Tako can also remember where you parked it, and with the touch of a button, return to its docked position.

The Tako is priced quite reasonably at L$250. I’d happily pay three times that for a vehicle with this many features. It’s also priced well within the newbie market; residents less than a month old can sail home in a Tako for a measly L$100.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006 at 1:45 am and is filed under Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.