Day 247: The Mata Hari Quest
OK, the Mata Hari Quest isnt exactly new. Both Taffy and Georgette have been telling me to try this (thank you so much! :D) So Im off to find some jewelry today :)
The Mata Hari Quest is the creation of famed SL jeweler Random Calliope. Random is famous for creating some of the most beautiful prim-based jewelry in Second Life. The Quest is a year old now. It was first solve in January 2006!
The Quest has a colorful background story, centered around a set of jewelry created for the infamous Mata Hari. 
The goal of the quest is to find Mata Hari's hidden jewels. I believe there are 6 pieces (including the ring at the start). And you get to keep them, of course :) Remember, these are Random's beautiful creations!
But just a word of warning: The Mata Hari Quest definitely requires SL building skills. You should be comfortable editing prims and with camera controls. Dont ask me why...just trust me on this one :P
The Quest doesnt really start here, but I stopped by Random's store to look at the Mata Hari poster. And pick up his beautiful and free Slither jewelry set. Just to get motivated, of course :)
Click on Search, select Places, and enter "random calliope" as the keyword. The SLURL is Kandinsky (34,209,36).
OK, with at least some free jewelry in hand, Im ready to embark on the Quest :)
The Mata Hari Quest actually takes place at the Crescent Moon Museum. I have fond memories of Crescent Moon, because I spent my past Christmas Day there :)
So heres the starting point. This little clue is in Random's Profile under Picks: "Start with the box of memorabilia on the fireplace mantle then ask me no questions :)"
The Mata Hari Quest gives you a series of clues...which lead you to other clues...and an occasional goodie :)
Most of these clues are puzzles you have to solve. There are all different kinds of puzzles! And they are tough! I got stuck on like the first puzzle, got frustrated, totally cheated, and ran for help... :P
And you would just be amazed at where things are hidden!
But just check out the goodies!
Theres this beautiful little ring box...
With a beautiful ring inside. The ring has 174 really really tiny prims!!! *Yikes*
If you find the ring, you can press Ctrl-Zero to zoom in closer to the ring, and Ctrl-9 to go back to normal view.
The bracelet is my favorite so far. It has 176 prims!
I have no idea how Random makes this stuff! :P
Theres a navel ring...
And a wonderful pair of earrings!
I want that necklace and armband! I just know theyre in here somewhere...Waaahhh!!! :(
If you like puzzles or jewelry (or preferably both :D), try the Mata Hari Quest at the Crescent Moon Museum! Click on Search, select Places, and enter "crescent moon" as the keyword. Choose the "Taber Tudor Village" link that comes up. The SLURL is Taber (203,94,22).
Oh come on, Blue Poseball darling! Just one little itsy bitsy clue, please? Pretty please?
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18 comments:
Hehehe sounds like you had fun, Natalia. Unfortunately, some of the objects containing the later clues for the armband and necklace seem to be broken at the moment. I keep bugging poor Random to fix them, but don't like disturbing an artiste at work. :)
P.S. Apparently 'Slither' has some sort of quest attached to it too, but I haven't started that one yet.
Love from Georgette x
I'm new to Second Life and thanks to your blog I'm understanding how things work.
I bought a hairstyle from you, a bit of a "thanks."
I also bought a small piece of land, though I don't really know how to build yet (but your description helped me to buy it.)
I'd love some advice on AO's. How do I stop my jerk walking? Where is a good place, and how do I know what I'm doing? I'm not as interested in poses, just a nicer walk.
I'm excited to try some of your freebie clothes and eventually would like to join your mermaid club. Is there an actual club, btw?
Georgette, thank you again for mentioning the Quest :) The necklace looks really nice though...its too bad the clues are broken. Lol actually, Im not sure my friends are willing to help me any more than they have already with these puzzles :P
Annette, congrats on getting your land! :) Thats a big step actually! And there are quite a few freebie houses available from Yadni's Junkyard (be sure to look at them in a Sandbox first though, or you will scare your neighbors :P)
If all you want is Sexy Walk, you can make your own AO for free. Section 3 of this tutorial has instructions on making an AO bracelet: http://slnatalia.blogspot.com/2007/01/day-110-creating-prim-shoes-part-3.html. Its pretty easy to do. And once you make your own, you will be able to customize it later :)
After Georgette mentioned it the other day I went through and fixed the puzzle permissions problems. So it's all set.
Thanks for the blog mention, and all the praise, Natalia. It sounds like you're enjoying the puzzle. Best of luck with the armband and necklace. Don't give up!
I read about this and want to do it. But I had no idea the jewelry has SO MANY PRIMS! But I heard that some hairs have up to 1000 prims! Wow! Are those high prim counts one of the reasons for so many crashes?
I read about sculpted hair in another SL blog, and the prim count was reduced to 26. I hope jewelry becomes sculpted too, especially neat treasure hunts 8^)
But, I'm female, so I'll still be doing the Mata Hari quest LOL, being careful to never wear any high-prim pieces in crowded places so I won't contribute to others crashing.
Speaking of high-prim hairs... Since you're a hair designer too, I'll ask: Is the reason for such high prim counts due to having to cover bald heads and hairlines?
If so, why aren't hair textures used in the bald head base, and hairlines painted onto a skin?
Since I don't do hair, there might be a very good reason, but if there's no good reason, then why isn't it done? I can paint 2D, so I might try a skin template to see how hard it is. But I guess I could go crazy trying too HA HA
HUGS
Tiara Voom
PS: looking forward to a post from you on how to do sculpties without buying expensive stuff 8^)
I got stuck at the navel ring. I would really like some help. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! I have no idea what to do any clue. you dont have to completely tell me but just a little hint wuld help.
Suki
Random, thank you for stopping by! And for putting together such a wonderful adventure (and jewelry :D) for all of us :) Um...what exactly *DID* you fix? :P
Tiara, lol well, Im probably one of the worst residents when it comes to prim count :P
Im not an expert on lag/server crashes (and theres quite a bit of debate about it). In general, high prim count doesnt crash servers; it just reduces the amount of prims available on that server (for buildings and other residents). Once all the prims on in a sim is used, you cant rez any more prims. That happened to us during the L'Oreal pageant (with 20 contestants and an audience in the same sim). Many of us had problems getting our hair and gown on. But we didnt crash the server (luckily) :)
I know that scripts can cause a lot of lag. AO's are prob the worst, so are scripts that have sensors and/or listens. I generally see servers crash because there are a lot of residents in a sim for a long period of time (generally during events like fashion shows and classes). Sometimes a busy SL day (when there were lots of SL residents online) makes things worse.
So I dont think high prim count crashes servers (or bling, for that matter :P). It doesnt help, but I dont think the impact is nearly as bad as having lots of residents, lots of scripts, or SL being busy.
Regarding hair, each linked object can only have 256 prims. It is possible to make a hair out of multiple linked objects, but it would have to use multiple attachment points. That would mean someone is deliberately trying to use LOTs of prims :) The hairs I make use between 60 to 130 prims. This is generally about the range Ive seen for most hair designers. (Lol I actually feel bad if a hair has too few prims :P)
Hair designers use prims mostly to create a 3D effect and the messy look of hair. We could cover the head in just a few prims, but it wouldnt look like a nice hairstyle with locks of hair going in diff directions and flexis flying everywhere :)
Heehee and I am working on a sculptie tutorial...but Im afraid that just adds more prims to the hair :P
Suki, lol I actually didnt solve any of the puzzles...my brother solved most of them while I was editing everything in the museum :P (I bribed him with dinner :P)
I did find one piece myself while poking around :)
Unfortunately, I didnt keep track of the puzzles or where things were...but let me take a quick peek...
After figuring out Clue #2 (egads), my friend figured out Clue #3 (egads again).
When we got the third clue, it was only a notecard, no belly ring.
Was the belly ring SUPPOSED TO BE INCLUDED WITH THE 3RD CLUE?
Or, was it just a clue to where the belly ring is actually hidden? (we haven't figured it out yet).
HUGS,
Tiara Voom
PS: Thanks for that explanation on lag and prim numbers 8^) I do have a hair w/ 2 attachment points, but I don't know the prim count to know if it needed 2 points for high prims, or for looks (it's a nice hair, so could be either LOL).
But I do believe scripts cause lag either for people's clients, or maybe sims too. I have to turn my particle count to 0 while I'm at the museum so I can stay longer between crashes.
Tiara, I dont remeber very clearly (heehee cause I didnt really solve them myself :P), but I think Clue #2 and #3 leads you to the Belly Ring. You have to solve the puzzle first...so I hope you dont get stumped by it :P
KK Thx Natalia, I was just checking because someone else had said some of the parts of the quest were broken.
I'll continue with the quest when my friend and I can get together on the clues (hats off to people that can solve this quest on their own LOL).
Tiara V
LOL, Natalia!
Tiara, so far so good...I found the one clue that wasnt working before (its working now)...
Lol and I didnt solve any of the actual puzzles myself (someone helped big time :) ). I did manage to find the earrings on my own by searching around :)
Alyse, Blue Poseball is being really quiet about this... :P
I am so stuck on #3
Im on the word search part of the clue and have no idea where to go next! Plus I cant find one of the words! Oh this makes my brain hurt! Anyone have any help!?
oh joy!
I actually just figured out the navel ring puzzle!
Boy was that a doozy!
I've been working on this puzzle since you first mentioned it! I now have all of the pieces except for the necklace. I'm stumped on the clue that came with the earrings. It's not the first time I've "solved" the clue, but have had no idea what the solution means!
Dear Anonymous, lol I dont think I ever figured out the navel ring one (cant remember :P). I got quite desperate and just started searching around randomly while a friend was working on the puzzles :) So congrats on solving that one!
Jana, Im so sorry, but I never got the necklace! I dont even know the clue for it. Lol things got really messy for me around the earrings...I was digging up clues out of order and just checking for things all over the place. I did hear from a couple people who finished recently, so I know it does work! Good luck!
Woo hoo! I finished it! It's a great puzzle and a very worthwhile way to spend time in SL.
(BTW, thanks for this blog. It has made SL very fun for me.)
Jana, congrats! Heehee you shouldnt let people know you finished...there are some desperate individuals (like me) who might pester you for clues ;P
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