Second Life Nessie Hunt Game Rules and Advice

The first thing to do is a second life search under the "Groups" tab for "Nessie Hunt at Loch Ness". This group is available to join free of charge. If the join button does not appear then the game is not yet running or there is a problem with Second Life and you will need to IM Gerald Wylie.

Once you are a member of "Nessie Hunt at Loch Ness" ensure you have it activated. You do this by right clicking your avatar and selecting groups from the pie menu. Then highlight the group and activate it. Newbies please note that you may need to activate one of your other groups when you leave the game. So if you get back to your own land or rented property and find you can't build anything, check that you have the correct group activated.

Once you have done this go to the Nessie Hunt Expedition HQ tent and click on the spinning Registration ball. Registering will give you a Notecard of these rules, but you may find them easier to follow on this webpage so it is a good idea to keep this page open in the background while you familiarise yourself with the game's operating parameters.

The game can be spread over as long as you wish, although it will be reset on the 1st of each month so you must finish it by midnight on the last day of the month.

Once registered you have to find eye witnesses. These are positioned in many places in the Scottish Highlands Loch Ness simulated environment. Some will be in shops, some may be in the Loch Ness Exhibition or the Story of Scotland Exhibition, the Scottish Places Exhibition (all of those are in sky buildings accessed from teleports from buildings around the Sim). Other locations to look for eye witnesses are the shops or even just individuals standing on street corners. Eye Witnesses ALWAYS have a hovertext above their heads which says "Nessie Hunt ~ Eye Witness ~ A Name" so they are easy to identify.

When you find an eye witness touch him/her. You can do this either by left clicking the eye witness or by right clicking and selecting "touch" from the pie chart menu. When you touch the eye witness you will be asked to wait while the database is accessed. In Second Life this is not an instantaneous process as there are no in-world databases and we have had to use an external database for the game. This means that the eye witnesses' program has to contact that database and retrieve your data. This usually takes no longer than twenty seconds.

It is important not to log out of Second Life during the process of obtaining evidence until the data saved message is provided. If you do, or if you have a crash of some description your data may remain locked and you will need to IM Gerald Wylie to get it freed up. Sorry, but this is an inadequacy of the Second Life programming language.

The eye witness will then deliver you a Notecard of his/her evidence. Note that although the eye witness may be named Tim Dinsdale, because there is a random delivery method within the program, Tim's eye witness account is only one of the possible accounts you will be given, so don't be surprised, for instance if the eye witness account is of someone else male or female. Eye witness mannequins are NOT intended to be representations of the actual people, they are, in fact, real Avatars who have posed for the game at the organiser's request. Each piece of evidence has a points value which will be told to you. You are also given your total points and the amount of N$, Nessie Dollars you have.

NOTE THAT NESSIE DOLLARS ARE NOT REAL MONEY. THE GAME IS FREE AND YOU EARN NESSIE DOLLARS WITHIN THE GAME.

MONEY - it is vital not to run out of Nessie dollar money. Expedition costs start low, a few tens of Nessie Dollars, but by the time you are using sonar the costs can be hundreds of Nessie Dollars per use, so it is vital to keep a close eye on how much you have in hand.

In the first phase of the game you collect five eye witness accounts. You must then move on to phase two, but before you do that you need to go to the Paymaster in the HQ tent to collect your pay. Nessie dollars are not important early on in the game, but can be critical later. Like real life (RL) money in the Nessie Hunt game is useful to have and takes away anxiety, but collecting more than you need is not an objective. Running out, however is a disaster and your game is over. You cannot start another game until the following month unless you use an "alt".

The bulk of the evidence provided in the game is real Loch Ness material, although, as you will soon discover, we have included some spoof material to add fun and enjoyment to the event.

Note that each eye witness or other piece of Nessie Hunt equipment can only be touched once. You cannot go back to the same eye witness or the same camera or sonar over and over again.

After those first five eye witnesses you enter the photographic stage. You must walk around the loch looking for cameras on the loch side. Click them for photographic evidence. After the six cameras you must find another five eye witnesses, then underwater camera monitors, sonars, biological research equipment and even a cage! Inbetween each piece of equipment you use, you must find five eye witnesses and after each batch of eye witnesses don't forget to visit the paymaster in the tent.

Also at the expedition HQ you will find the Expedition Leader who will offer hints and suggestions for how you can find other sources of funds if you are running short. You will also, occasionally, be told to find other items in the game which can contain hazards or benefits. Some may strip you of some of your evidence and others may offer vast rewards in return for various activities you may have to undertake, like attending a Nessie symposium, or giving TV interviews etc. It is intended to involve other simulations within Second Life in this process.

The game is complete after you have used the cage, the last piece of equipment, and taken your evidence to the Expedition Leader. The winner of the game is the player who has the most points at that stage. Money is not important except as a tie breaker.

It is intended to have a cash prize for the game each month, a grand prize for the highest score each three months and a humungous prize each year.