Caledon
Owner: Caledon Oxbridge University (group owned)
Take on your graduation robes, steampunk suit or victorean dress, because we’re going to the university.
Caledon Oxbridge University, or COU as most people know it by, is a steampunk/victorean-themed sim with some really great spots for learning, photography or just hanging out. Right as you drop down on the landing pad, you’ll feel the ambience flowing from both the screen and the speakers. Classical music, classical buldings and strange technologies surround you. It’s not quite modern and not quite old, but a mix between the two, as if it was today, but without electricity or digital devices. That’s what steampunk is all about! As soon as I pop in here, I always set the environment to Dusty (World->Environment Settings->Environment Editor->Advanced Sky->Sky Presets) to get that really old feeling.
To get a feeling of how big this place is, take a look at the map on the left here. I’ve marked the place with the landing pad and the tutorial area around it, and that takes about 30 minutes to go through. The whole sim is massive and at its 56 080square meter area it’s one of the biggest single sims in SL. I can’t possibly cover everything in this article, but I will go over the hot spots and guide you to other resourses to help you find your way.
First off, the sandboxes! Yes, they have more than one sandbox here. The first one is a regular sandbox with one exeption; there’s a lot of tutorials here, teaching you all you have to know about building. The other sandbox is also a teaching area for some of the classes that Izzie talks about in her article. Here you’ll find resources, tools and some free stuff to help you bouild tiny prims (jewlery etc.) and fabrics (flexi clothes).
Do you like books? There’s a library with links to online books, a book of the month-club, subscriptions, reading tips and reading circles. It’s also a great hangout if you want to chill out or get some place to park your avi while IM’ing or doing RL work on the computer.
There’s housing here, for everyone from the darkest gothic to the cutest tinies and everyone in between. The only “rule” is that you keep it victorian or steampunk.
If you feel up to an adventure, take the train at any station and see most of what Caledon has to offer. It will take about 40 minutes to go from one end of the track to the other and there’s lots of stops, just jump off when you’ve found an interesting place and the next train will be there within minutes. Don’t want to be gone for that long, or perhaps you don’t want to go that far, but still don’t want to travel by foot… There’s a lot of other ways of travel, such as horse and carriage or airplane.
Take one of these transports, or look around for one of the many teleporters, direction signs or other avis to find out where to go if you’re lost. Even thou the sim is massive, it’s pretty easy to find what you’re looking for here.
I won’t go into facilities here, it’s just too many to list!
Newbie Friendliness: 10/10 (What you don’t know, you’ll learn here)
Music: Classical music with newscasts from todays events
Lag:4-6 (depending on wich region, what time and how many people you have around you, can get quite laggy at times, but it’s rare)
Personal rating: 10/10 (I don’t give top rating to many sims, I often refuse out of principle, but Caledon has certainly deserved it)
Morphman
Photos by Morphman
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