Class 8 - Patrolling in Linden Realms

Introduction

Linden Realms is a game inside Second Life. It is a "virtual experience" with a HUD and some special rules. A resident can complete quests and earn a small amount of Linden dollars. It is fairly popular, which means that it's a target for griefers. Griefers can cause problems by wearing graphics crashers in Linden Realms, and by blocking access to the crystals that are part of the game (camping). Another issue that needs to be reported is people using bots or software to enhance game play or crystal collection rates (cheating). Here is the FAQ page for Linden Realms, from the Second Life Knowledge Base.

Getting Started

To get started, teleport to the Portal Park 1 or Portal Park 2 region, linked on the Second Life Destination Guide page. You will see the start of several trails. Find the trail marked "Linden Realms" and walk down it until you see the portal. If you would rather teleport directly to a Linden Realms portal, here are the SLURLs.

Portals - Portal Park 1 - Portal Park 2

If you stand near the portal, after a while you will see it say something like this in local chat:

Linden Realms Portal: Now sending to: Linden Realms 1

The portal cycles through all four Linden Realms destinations at random, so if you want to go to a specific destination, you will have to wait until the portal announces that it is going there. Just walk through the portal and you will be teleported to a different region. The portal will take you to one of four destinations, Linden Realms 1 through Linden Realms 4. Depending on which Linden Realms destination the portal sends you to, you will arrive in a parcel named "Summoning Circle" in the following region:

Linden Realms 1 - LR 8

Linden Realms 2 - LR 28

Linden Realms 3 - LR 168

Linden Realms 4 - LR 188

You may see an error message when you arrive, referring to the Second Life Marketplace. I don't know why it appears, but it doesn't seem to affect the experience. As soon as you arrive, the game's HUD will be attached to you. I had some trouble with that at first, until I detached a few of my HUDs. I didn't discover which one was blocking the Linden Realms HUD. The HUD will have the icons of several crystals across the top, and a description of your current "quest." As you move through the region, walking into a crystal will transfer it to your inventory, and your HUD will show that you gathered a crystal of whatever color it was. If you are touched by a fireball, a rock monster, or the toxic water in a river or pond, you will be "killed" and teleported to the nearest Resurrection Circle, where you can continue the game.

Inside Linden Realms

Each Linden Realms destination consists of 12 connected regions. Each region is named with an "LR," a space, and a number, e.g., LR 189. If you look at the map, you will see an Infohub icon that marks a special parcel in each of the 12 regions. You can teleport to seven of these parcels, but not the other five. Here is a list of the 12 regions at each Linden Realms destination, with a SLURL linked at the regions where you can teleport. The parcels you can teleport to are shown in bold text.

In Linden Realms, you can walk and you can run, but you can't teleport and you can't fly. If you try to teleport to random locations within the region, or fly, or take off the HUD, the experience will teleport you home. If you are wearing a HUD or an AO or another device that speeds up your running, you may see a cloud object that appears in front of you as you move. After a few seconds, you will be teleported home. Here is the covenant for each Linden Realms region.

Covenant

* Flying is not permitted in Linden Realms.

* Use of ‘bots’ or other automated software (internal or external) to enhance game play mechanics is not permitted.

* Use of any object, devices, HUDs, scripting, etc to enhance award collection rates is not permitted.

If your account is discovered operating or performing any of the above, Linden Lab may suspend or terminate access to Linden Realms, and/or your Second Life account.

Patrolling

The best way to be notified of griefing events in Linden Realms is to join the open enrollment group "Linden Realms (Unofficial)." Several peacekeepers and their alts are in that group. Group members will report both griefing and cheating. They are usually pretty good at giving the name of the griefer/cheater and which region they are in. Linden Lab wants to receive Abuse Reports about both. Cheaters use HUDs or attachments that speed up their movement, so they can run around and collect the game's crystals faster than other residents.

If you receive a report about griefing or cheating in one of the LR regions, for example, "[resident name] is using a cheater HUD in LR 165," you will first need to determine which of the Linden Realms destinations that region is in (LR 165 is in Linden Realms 3), and then you will have to go to one of the portals and wait for it to say "Now sending to: Linden Realms 3." Once it says that and you step through and teleport to the LR 168 "Summoning Circle," you will have to determine the best way to get from your location to LR 165. If you open your map display, you will see that LR 165 is three regions to the west of your location. You can place your mouse cursor over the Infohub icons closest to LR 165 until you find one that says it is a "Resurrection Circle," and then teleport there. Then make your way toward the cheater/griefer, avoiding the game's hazards as you go. When you find the cheater/griefer, just do that Abuse Report voodoo that you do so well!

Graphics and Details

Maps

Here are maps of the Linden Realms regions, with the teleport locations circled in red.

Destination: Linden Realms 1

Destination: Linden Realms 2

Destination: Linden Realms 3

Destination: Linden Realms 4

Teleport Locations

If you are already in one of the Linden Realms regions, you can teleport to the Basecamp or any of the six Resurrection Circles. The setup shown below is exactly the same in Linden Realms 1 through Linden Realms 4.

Linden Realms teleport locations

Hazards

These are the things that will "kill" you.

Being hit by a fireball sends you to the nearest Resurrection Circle, where you will see this in local chat: "A huge fireball: You were just immolated by a fireball!"

Another view of fireballs. They are probably impossible to dodge.

Touching this evil looking glowing water will send you to the nearest Resurrection Circle, where you will see this in local chat: "Deadly Looking Water: You drowned in the toxic water!"

You can't fly, and the rivers are too wide to jump across, but you can see several bridges on the map that you can use to cross the toxic rivers.

Rock monsters are all over the place in the Linden Realms regions. If you come within range of one, it will start to chase you. If a rock monster touches you, it will send you to the nearest Resurrection Circle where you will see the following message in local chat: "Rock Monster: You can avoid monsters and obstacles by running rather than walking. Press ctrl-r to toggle between walk and run."

This smug looking little cloud appears if you're wearing an AO or a HUD that moves you too quickly. If you don't teleport to another Linden Realms region right away, it will send you home after a few seconds.

Linden Realms Portal

There is a portal in the Portal Park 1 and Portal Park 2 regions. Just walk into it and it will teleport you to a Linden Realms destination.

Linden Realms portal - usually has several residents standing nearby

Linden Realms HUD

This HUD is attached automatically when you go through the portal, and detaches automatically when you leave Linden Realms.

I have never been able to find where it is in my inventory.

Linden Realms Covenant

This is the standard wording for every LR region.

Covenant for the LR 168 region

Teleport Error Message

This error message is sometimes seen after walking through the portal.

I suspect it has something to do with the portal setup. It doesn't seem to cause any subsequent problems.