Xundra’s group are busy as I write this, arguing about what may have caused such a sudden and severe cutoff point. Talk winds around the need for Xundra to have hired support staff, and of looking after other people’s investments in the XS goods, in time (it took many many hours of personal time in fishing up some of the XS products in a quest for a special quail or a special cactus) and in the small market which was developing.

Others are suggesting they can understand Xundra’s thinking given what happened with a trusted friend Adriana Larimal – who abused her close access to the Quail, and exploited this by cloning for her own profits, under the pseudonym of several alternative avatars. Many of us are also, of course, unaware of some of the abusive content of IMs and emails Xundra may have been privy to in the near past from disenfranchised quail or cactus breeders with differences in expectations from what the main objectives of this creator had.

None of us can for sure suggest what factor – if you could put your finger on only one – was that final death knell in Xundra’s feelings towards a product which was meant to be fun, but perhaps got too big. Certainly we can all also see the other side of the coin where some people had invested money into their own third party business plans based on the XS Products, and therefore expected support and a continual future. But may I remind you of a couple of other breedable products which are now either virtually abandoned from development, or completely defunct in a similar fashion – sionChickens and Seid Mushrooms.

Like many, I currently am feeling extremely disappointed and a little let down. I’d only just set-out a large cactus garden on my new SIM, and was hoping to see another Level 5 cactus at some point. I have a large inventory of now worthless special cactus seeds kept aside because I hoped that at some point I could sell them for a little money to make up for the watering costs and prim costs supporting that inventory. I never thought that I would ever make a business out of it, but I am, and always will be, a collector and a game-player – my pursuit of the specials and elites against some startlingly bad odds as a small time breeder are what has kept me in Second Life myself lately, even moving SIMs to accommodate my prim needs.

Now, I am faced with another death in the breedables collection, and a large dent in my own plans and reasonings. I, of all people, understand the depth of feelings from both sides of this breedable story. But let’s not forget – this is a game, most of us will never make money out of breeding breedables, and as much as we call it an investment, it’s in virtual pixels only. Yes, with real life dollars or pounds in the background, but I think for myself I need to back away for a moment, and remember the actual fun and enjoyment I got out of those pounds I put into this particular breedable game.

Is it wrong for a breedable animal or plant to be ‘just for fun?’ and accessible for free for all? Once you code that last script, test that last beta and put out the vendors to sell (or give away) such a product, at what point is it okay in the majority mind for you to take down the vendors and move on? Who is that majority? Who decides?

Really, it can only be the creator who decides not to create anymore. And that’s what Xundra Snowpaw has today decided to do regarding the XS Cactus and XS Quail. She’s left us with what we’ve currently got alive, and free food supplies to keep them going, and she’s left us with a small piece of Second Life and Breedables history.

Despite my own pain over this, and understanding of the emotions involved from all sides, I would like to now just say a simple thanks to the creator, Xundra, for the brief time I had with an exciting and addictive and affordable breedable product. Thanks for your creativity Xundra.

Where to Now?

Whilst many avatars are announcing the deletion of all XS products off their own sims, and the pursuit of ‘another breedable’ (may I recommend EcoGen as an interesting ecosystem with potential?) some of us will still enjoy the cactus and quail we currently have out. Your cactus will produce dead seeds now  – the servers no longer exist to provide the data. So, all seeds are no longer applicable, including those you may find in seedbags – because to grow them you need to be sent a plant from the now defunct servers. The existing live cactus plants are now more for decor than anything, although they continue to produce [dead] seeds on blooming.

If anybody has some Level 5 Cactus – which I was only lucky enough to find one of, I would welcome giving those a home at my own farm, where I intend keeping a cacti display of this piece of history.

Questions still sit around the quail, although I can tell you now that you can take quail into inventory unboxed (as boxes will no longer be available) without harming them. Eggs laid before the servers stopped an hour or so ago, will still hatch out – I’ve tried them.

There are also several group members who are still crossing their fingers and ‘waiting it out’ in the hope that some resolution can be found for the future of what is an extremely good product. Several coders have also previously contacted Xundra to offer to purchase the full XS product line, to continue it, and remain still trying to contact her for discussions. I too, live in a small hope that at some point in the future I might get another special Quail or cactus plant, but also would like to point out that Xundra previously made the Quail code opensource, and as yet we’ve not seen another animal released built on the back of this.

For those not in the XS Cactus group, you will not as yet, realise what is going on. Contact me if you need one of the copyable watering cans or quail food bowls to retain your plants and animals now. I’ll send a copy through.

Apologies for the emotions involved in such a post. The above image was taken at my newly set out XS Cactus garden on my own new SIM. I’d just got it together a day or so ago, and would like to complete the collection with a few missing lives at certain levels, and of course – the level 5′s I never got. I’m still quite proud of that collection, and intend keeping it as I currently do with a small crop of Seid Mushrooms. RIP, the breeding cactus.

Technorati Tags: death, featured, XS Cactus, XS Quail

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1. XS Cactus | New Specials, New Varieties and The Quail
2. XS Quail | Buggy Special Release
3. XS Labs | Trade in Your Cactus and Quail for Points

I am publishing the full notecard below, not as a requiem, but it contains tips and suggestions for all manner of the XS Lab products and constant questions Xundra found herself dealing with over and over again. Being a creator alone is an incredibly lonely and hard business. The creator behind XS Cactus and XS Quail did this generally alone, and she did it professionally and quickly.

I hope with all my heart that Xundra returns soon, and perhaps finds some more friends and support staff to continue the further development of the XS Labs product line.

Yes, Xundra. They are fun. Some of the fun-est, less maintenance wary, most cost effective breedables on the grid. Blogging the XS Labs products always gave me great joy, and I will continue to do so as my own quail and cactus continue to grow and produce.

The image above is a personal message to Xundra. In the early days of XS Cactus – only a few months ago, I blogged about having a bad time for a week. A present arrived – my very own special PacificBlue cactus. A one-of-a-kind from a then quite-small breedable creator. That was before Quail came along, before the monthly cactus specials came along. My PacificBlue cactus has smiley faces on it. So, although I can’t create or script like the talented creators we have in Xundra Snowpaw, or others like the Petable team, or the Ozimals team, or any other breedable creators you may be thinking of, what I can do is throw an image of smiley faces back to Xundra as my own little message.

Right back at ya, Ms Snowpaw.

Xundra’s Notecard and Tips for XS Labs

I’m taking a break. I’m exausted and this just isn’t fun anymore. I’ve got no time for anything else and I just need a rest.

I know many of you are having fun I’m not going to take it all away, the L$ from the water is enough to pay the tier on the land so i will leave it as it is. I’ll might make specials each month still, but I wont be logging in every day anymore. Dead seeds will continue to happen, I’m not going to do a massive update, sorry.

Quails should work fine now – most of the time – if the stop eating, try boxing them into a box and unboxing them, if they dont go back down on the ground it means they’re not homed, so move them close to the home object and click the home object. Dont keep 50+ quails in a little area, SL can’t handle it it seems and starts dropping messages.

Golden watering cans are automatic. You don’t click them. They don’t water instantly. Rez them near your cacti (10m) and they will water all of them every 72 minutes.

Don’t expect to make a fortune reselling. These were meant to be for fun, and cheap – a game that everyone could play. There is no official price “suggestions” everyone is free to give away, or sell their own cacti and quails, do swapsies with friends or whatever.

The Waterlogged cactus is hard to catch. Expect to fish a lot.

Xundra

Technorati Tags: featured, XS Cactus, XS Quail

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SLurl – Xundra’s Pet Store

Technorati Tags: events, featured, XS Cactus

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2. XS Cactus | New Specials, New Varieties and The Quail
3. XS Cactus | First Genetica Cactus Released

This one is less than a day old, so excuse it’s smallness.

Technorati Tags: featured, Independence, XS Cactus

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2. XS Cactus | First Genetica Cactus Released
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Summer Sale!

Technorati Tags: events, featured, PlantPets, SL Breedables

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Bruce Liebknecht and Tmzasz Luminos

New Release

Technorati Tags: featured, news, PlantPets

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The new point HUD will now award the following points:

Quails / Eggs:
———————————–
10 points base

+ 100 points for low shine
+ 200 points for medium shine
+ 300 points for high shine

+ 10 points for 10% glow
+ 20 points for 20% glow
+ 300 points for 30% glow

for live quail over the age of 7,

+ 2 points for every day old.

cactus
———————————–
10 points per level of cactus,  and 10 points for cacti without level showing

Technorati Tags: featured, XS Cactus, XS Quail

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1. XS Labs | Trade in Your Cactus and Quail for Points
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Last night,Bruce release the Orchid Princess slipper.The Orchid is available at the price of 895 L$.It comes in 4 colours : albus,azureus,roseus and cypreus . And the rare one Princess Slipper Orchid Noor.First 15 peoples which went to the shop and say  the password : princ3ss,got a free voucher with 200l$.

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Pick up the Points HUD from the lower level at the XS Mainstore. It’s free, but no transfer. When you wear this, the default position is bottom right.

XS Laboratory Points HUD

You can trade in unwanted XS items -

XS Cactus Seeds * – these must be bagged first, so make sure you’ve got the latest seed bags (again, these are free from the store) as these provide the points.

The seed bags show the level of the cactus seed inside. These only show for updated cactus, however (not the originals). According to the level – from 1 to 5, you will get that amount of points per cactus seed traded into the HUD.

XS Quail Eggs

Eggs can be un-cupped for trade-ins via the HUD.  The HUD will work with eggs in or out of eggcups, but the eggs must be updated to the latest version.

• Normal Eggs = 1 point
• Glow Eggs give extra 1 points for 10% glow, extra 2 points for 20% glow and extra 3 points for 30% glow.
• Shine Eggs give extra 10 points for low shine, extra 20 points for medium shine and extra 3 points for high shine

Live XS Quail

The same points as eggs above, but after 7 days, the HUD also gives a bonus amount of points equal to their age – so the older the quail, the better.

Special Quail and Generation 0 Quail (the starter quail) can not be traded. Live Quail alive or in cryo-crates can be traded, but the Quail must be updated to the latest version.

Points Items

Currently there are four points items available. Two of these are special edition Quail eggs – if you’re a recent quail owner you may already have one each of these, which were free.

Gorm the Nosy Gnome is 250 points, and he sits out within close range of your quail, and can monitor and report on Quail pregnancies.

Gnomish Egg Basket for 500 points is an egg attractor.

Winter Special Quail Egg – 1000 points

Buggy Special Edition Quail Egg – 2000 points.

My Thoughts

The Points system is very new, and Xundra Snowpaw has taken some care in allocating points, but they remain in trial. I would say that I’ve personally used the Points HUD since it came out, and so far have only accumulated 130 points.

Because I’ve been growing cactus from basically day one, many of mine are originals and non-updated. They therefore don’t put the levels onto any cactus seeds which come from them. I estimate at the moment that a good half of the seeds I get during a normal day do not have levels on them, and therefore are issued with only 1 point in trade-in, actual levels regardless.

I’m therefore currently in the process of replacing my older cacti with new ones as they are seeded out to me, and this means that instead of trading in my level cacti seeds, I’m growing them. Eventually I may get to a point where my points amalgamate more quickly, as I’m aiming for that little grumpy gnome for a start.

Trading in cactus seed is a manual task. First they have to be individually seed-bagged before they can be traded. Multiples of seed bags are available free at the XS Mainstore.

* However there is another option to consider for the breeder who has both cactus and quail. Using a Seed Processor, the naked (unbagged) seeds can be converted into food bowls for the Quail.

At the moment there are a lot of food bowls around on markets, selling very cheaply even for the large bowls. The same can perhaps be said of XS Quail in cryo-crates and seed bags for sale – these started off extremely cheaply in some markets.

Now that seed (and quail) owners have another option in trading them in for points, the food processing option has become rarer, and we may see some movement in pricing for XS Quail food bowls out there at some point in the future. And the prices for the Quail and cacti may rise accordingly also.

In the meantime, every day I take a look at my seeds, my quail food supply in inventory, and consider the many options available to me via XS Labs.

XS Laboratory Post : Quails & Cacti for Science!

Technorati Tags: featured, XS Cactus, XS Laboratory, XS Quail

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XS Cactus are breeding growing plants, if you don’t know. They grow from seed, and you can see some of those seeds in one of my photographs. Pacific has a few of these specials in seed bags and out for sale if you’re interested in adding to your own collection. Each plant is only 2 prims, and all they need is a watering from a watering can – and you can even get ones which automatically water also. Oh, and Pacific takes her excess seed and makes it into food bowls which feeds her XS Quail collection too – those are breedable birds.

But for me, the plants are the most interesting.

Please excuse my explanations, as they were chatted to me quickly by my neice, and I could have mixed up some of the information. She’s gone off to do up her stables, so you’re stuck with my say-so on this.

XS Cactus – Genetica Rosa, Golden Anniversary 1000, Strange Voodoo Pink

XS Genetica Rosa, Golden 1000 Anniversary Special and Strange Voodoo Pink

In the front is the newest cacti out – a new species called the Genetica Cacti – the first is Genetica Rosa. These Level 2 cacti can be bred by anybody. When you plant them before they mature they take on the flower colouring from the other XS Cactus around them. Knowing this, Pacific experimented with her first, putting it beside a golden special and an expired Strange Voodoo – which flowers in pink. The outcome this time around is a flower of an orangey pink colour – the pink flowers of the Voodoo and the golden yellow of the special have created this particular bloom colour in the Genetica.

Behind is the Golden cactus special which was available briefly to all cactus growers at the time, to celebrate the 1000th live cactus being grown on the grid. It’s called the 1000 Grown Celebration Cactus. When you touch it, stars come out.

To the right is an expired Strange Voodoo Pink cactus. The Voodoos are a Level 3 Cactus, with big flowers on them. This one is particularly wanted, because it’s named a ‘Strange Voodoo’. The plant is required as part of the components in a special XS Quail quest, and until used for that quest, it gives off something called mojo. After it’s been used for the quest, it becomes ‘expired’ and no longer gives off mojo, but still continues to grow and bloom, and produce seeds.

XS Cactus – Easter Cactus and Electro Cactus

Easter Cactus, Voodoo Cactus, Classic Cactus and Electro Cactus

The cactus seen right in front of the ‘X’ in the sign here is an Easter Cactus. This is a special cactus available to all only over Easter time. The cactus you see here is actually blooming although my photo doesn’t do it justice. The blooms are a ring of candy easter eggs around the base of the plant.

To the right is another Voodoo cactus in bloom. In front you will see a classic cactus – the classic fork-like shape is what denotes these cacti.Classics are level 4′s, and relatively hard to come by, while the Voodoos are level 3′s.

To the right is Pacific’s latest find – an Electro cactus. This is a level 5 cactus which are extremely rare to get. There are only a few other varieties of these across the grid, and as each one is discovered, Xundra Snowpaw, the XS Cactus creator, puts up demo ones at her store. Pacific mentioned wanting a bubblegum cactus next, as a collectors item. The Electro Cactus has electric wire blueprint texture and a particularly dazzling electric green flower at the top – when in bloom.

XS Cactus – PacificBlue (One-Off), Waterlogged and Memory Cactus

PacificBlue Cactus (One-Off), Waterlogged and Memory Cactus

The PacificBlue Cacti to the left – the one with smiley faces bloom, is a one-off special cactus sent from the creator to my niece as a cheer-up present. Pacific was having a bad time at that time, and I wasn’t in-world. When she got the smiley faces she finally smiled, so I have Ms Snowpaw to thank for that one.

In the middle is the large twisted blue cacti which is the Waterlogged Cactus. This is a special cactus which you can only get by spending some time at the XS Mainstore fishing in the little pool there. It doesn’t require as much watering as the others, hence it’s name.

The white cracked looking cactus with multi-coloured daisy like blooms is the Memory Cactus. This is the first special which can be bred when you have other specials.

Technorati Tags: featured, XS Cactus

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