Soap Bubble Vale, Freeport server (Image Heavy)

(Background...my first thoughts making this place, I was going to do a new version of the Island of the Snowglobes https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/snowglobe-island-freeport-server.535603/ I got the idea to try to do globes with the misty tiles from the Antonica Moonlight Enchantments grotto...and everything kinda advanced from there, with me saying, 'This...kinda looks like a soap bubble!')

(Freeport server, Medium homes.)


(Bubbles, bubbles, gnomish troubles...)


(The BOOK--The Ballad of Augustus McGimmon, by Quickpaw)

There was a rich gnome named McGimmon
Who had the worst luck with women.
For all that he did try
(For all that he did buy)
To his shores they would not be swimmin'.


(Bubbled...err, bubbling...fountain)

"I know--girls love that cute stuff," said he,
"I'll build a home as pretty as can be.
With gewgaws of all kinds,
I'll blow their little minds.
They'll know the gnome for them is, well, me!"


(Poor lonely little swing...that no one will ever be able to use...)

So he set on this path most am'rous,
Though the work was all quite arduous.
Fearing thieves would come take
The beauties he would make,
He worked alone--all quite strenuous.

The dancing floor was truly a feat
(Never mind that he had two left feet)
Still, asking girls to dance
Led, he knew, to romance
As an opener it can't be beat.


(Dance pavillion seen from the outside)

The grand dining room was a great spot
Though a kitchen he somehow forgot
With nary a fine meal,
Tis hard to rouse love's zeal
"I will just have the girls cook, that's what."


(Grand dining room, long view...with visitor...when you see the zombie pet, have a drink...)

His boat made him especially keen,
Though he got so sick it was obscene,
But afloat, all at night,
Bobbing by candlelight,
"They won't even see that I've turned green."


(The lurve boat...and the zombie sneaks into camera view again. Have a drink.)

The small, quite intimate theater
Could show films, a fine motivator.
But what made this a waste,
Was the gnome's own poor taste,
Less tear-jerker...than gladiator.


(The theater, rare inside view. Now showing: Gladiator Gnomes, Blood on the Sands.)

The gazebo might be overboard
Since watching the stars made him quite bored.
The girls could ooh and ahh,
While he found it quite blah.
Leaving them to sky-watch while he snored.


(The skywatching gazebo)

The bed vibrated, that's no surprise
In subtlety, McGimmon's not wise
Mirror on the ceiling,
Sheets silky-soft feeling
The gnome's 'love' was more lust in disguise.


(The boudoir. Yes, real mirror on the ceiling.)

He toiled with all due vigor and grit,
Taking more time than he would admit.
But all the time he spent,
Was awful to his scent.
"Ooof! Can't woo girls while smelling like...filth."


(Bug on a swing...actually, my usually-Kerra self in the Arasai illusion I used to size up the place for gnomes--or size DOWN as the case may be)

If he'd not disgust her, but date her,
Cleaning was best not left 'til later.
So he bundled his hope,
(With perhaps too much soap)
In the bowels of his Washerator.


(Use only as directed. Do not taunt Happy Fun Washing Machine...)

T'was magic soap fit to clean a tomb,
Mixed with clothes 'til there was no more room.
The machine it did clank,
Choked on clothes that all stank,
It shuddered, quaked, and then went KA-BOOM!


(Ta-ra-ra BOOM-de-yay, have you had yours today...)

The gnome who wanted himself a wife,
Was forced to flee for his own dear life.
Bubbles came out in blues
Pinks and pearly-white hues.
None of which could be cut with a knife.


(A picture I had to call 'Lotsa bubbles'. Oh, there's Deadslow...take a drink.)

When the dust settled, the gnomish jerk
Found that fate had dealt him a cruel quirk.
Theater, dancing floor,
Boat, his home's front door,
Soap bubbles sat on all his hard work.


(Okay, not everything has a bubble on it...the infamous ((on the Homeshow channel at least)) 'romantic' outhouse. And Deadslow...take a drink.)

He tried everything known to gnome-kind
That would get himself out of this bind.
Explosives, metal spears
Machines with lots of gears,
The puzzle, he just could not unwind.


(Inside view of the dance pavillion--yes, this spot's enterable via telepad, as is the 'love nest' and the 'love boat')

Bubbles to last for eternity,
Testament to his infirmity.
Perhaps t'was just as well,
His romance he'd ne'er sell.
Girls for him would have enmity.


(Dance pavillion top view...probably something few besides me will ever see. What, me OCD enough to make the top of the structure pretty? Well...yes.)

The moral, if there is such a one
From these bubbles gleaming in the sun
To thine own self be true,
If a love you would woo
Because being trapped outside ain't fun.


(Very roof of the pavillion, I love how that centerpoint turned out. Again, something probably only me would ever see And dangit, Deadslow! Get off of there! I'm not calling the fire department if you get stuck!)

But perhaps the real meat on the bone
Is false heart, may as well be of stone.
It's not tricks that you need,
Honesty, girls will heed.
And McGimmon? He still sleeps alone.

(Again, Freeport server, Medium homes on the leaderboards. Hope y'all enjoy!)

This is so cool! I should have gone to bed about 10 minutes ago but i *had* to stay to read through the whole thing. That was too cute! I can't wait to stop by and see it in person. It's such a fun little story and I also love how that top of the pavillion turned out. Something a fellow layout editor junkie can definitely appreciate. I'm fascinated by how awesome those bubbles look. I really like those books for the walkway as well. Great job on the whole project!

The books were persnickety as all get-out...still say it's the cheapest building material ever (like 2c per book I think?). Took forever to get them set, but I love how they turned out too

Yeah, I really only made the first dome out of the misty tiles as a lark...and fell in love with 'em. They're really awesome in person I think, a still picture of course doesn't show how the mist moves.

Very cute. I will have to stop by for a visit later today I love the dance pavilion and the movie projector is fabulous!

What a fun tour! I'm sure I'll be humming the (Ta-ra-ra BOOM-de-yay, have you had yours today...) most of the day! I look forward to seeing it in person later, kudos!

*laugh* I half expected to have complaints about making people read poetry Well, my silly limericks disguised as poetry... Thanks! Again I didn't use half of the screenshots I got...I was tempted to illustrate the signs I put up (thanks to Kasumie, I believe it was, of AB for the outhouse sign) here, but then, 'I've messed up SOE's bandwidth enough with this post...let's leave something for visitors to see in person.'

Very simple, too I went minimalist on a lot of the things (that swing my avatar's sitting on in the pictures is like five or six items, I believe...well, seven or eight counting the trees)...sometimes less really is more!

Amazing and I love the story and the poem

What a wonderful job, can't believe you had the patience with those books well done, on a side note I just read yesterday due to player consinsece sony going to remove the shiny and mist effect from the moonlight grotto tile thing at some point.

Actually, believe that was the water tiles...and that's already happened. At least I hope it's not the misty tiles that're doing that, tho' I'd have to ask, 'What shiny effect?' if they did for some reason

Thanks! Yeah, the books took some patience...set 'em up via the layout editor, then adjusted them using 'edit mode' from the house options. It was very nitpicky work, with the unevenness of the ground in the vale. Which isn't really a complaint...they ended up looking very...organic, really, in following the contours of the land.

Just in case... Right now, the Freeport housing leaderboard is broke (or was as of an hour or so ago, I assume it's not fixed yet) and is only showing like the last three or four houses that were published. I'm hoping it'll be fixed soon enough, but in case it isn't...

Freeport server, City of Freeport, 'Vale of Halfpint Delight', and the name Quickpaw should get ya to the place. Hate to have people go thru the trouble of making a character on the server and not be able to find the place

how original- and i love the poem - the swing is really a touch of genius

*blush* Well, I'll admit to being a bit touched in the head, not sure about genius

Same thing ("touched in the head" = "genius"!), though limericks are only 8 syllables for the first, second, and last lines, and 5 for the inner two; it was a little jarring, and the editor in me kept trying to take out a word here or there, I must admit (and the first, second, and last have to end-rhyme, but I can see why you changed the last word in that one at the last minute ["filth" doesn't quite rhyme, but better than the alternative...], lol!). ;->

Love the concept of the "bubbles" and the design of each "room"! Very well done!

Out of nosiness curiosity, how many tiles did the "bubbles" take, on average?

Uwk

Yeah, kinda freeform poetry really...I had it in me from the start to end the 'ballad' (which I'm sure breaks all rules for ballads too, me not knowing what the rules might be, it's been longer than I'd care to admit since my college English classes) with the last line, like no matter what our fictional gnome ended up trying, he still ended up alone in the end; so I kinda went from there--that was nine syllables, and having the intermediary lines be six suited me, multiples of three and all. Oh, and of course the substitution was intentional

I do have to wonder if others have ended up spending a few hours on a book/poem as part of their house projects. It made sense to me for this one, for sure.

Thanks! Yeah, it really did all stem from me trying the misty tiles for the domes, and thinking they looked like soap bubbles...which led to thinking of a reason for gigantic bubbles... And it varies, I think most of the bubbles are either multiples of 6 or 8, with the biggest one (the one over the dance pavillion) being 12 I think...I built 'em by tiers, usually two (the 'base' row, then an angled-farther-inward second tier that met to form the top), with three for the pavillion globe. So, probably either 12 or 16 tiles for most of the domes, 36 for the biggest of them...some variances, of course the 'love nest' bubble has only half a bottom tier--couldn't go IN the place if it was a full circle. Like I said, I think the biggest bubble was 12, then another 12 for the second tier, then finally the top. I did the same thing with the snowglobes, but the misty tiles are more forgiving--less solid than the polished ice tiles, so less in the way of hard edges visible. The snowglobes took a bit more work because of that.

Jazabelle asked me why I didn't make one dome, then copy it for all the rest...to be honest, it never even occurred to me. So, they're all slightly different

I really used like a tenth of the number of misty tiles I thought I'd be using ('course, originally I'd thought of doing one giant dome over the whole Vale...holes in the geometry of the place nixed that, I would've ended up with missing tiles in the giant mega-bubble). Oh well, around 600 of each variety to use in other projects What those'll be, no clue yet. I'm sure I'll think of something.

Ah! Okay, I get it now...and I'd have to look up the Ballad rules, too; don't ask me how I know about limericks...

Gotta love them Misties! That's shocking that you only had to use so few! Good to know... ;->

Uwk
who really, really should get on the horn and do those ME Grottos tonight...brb... :-/

It really worked out well, using the misty tiles. I'll have to use 'em for other things in that way...maybe a giant aquarium? Bet that would look great with either the blue or the white mist... As for ballads, I didn't even bother looking it up, it's probably Google-able or whatever

Me too with the grottos, think I'll wake up the baby provie I've got (who's not so baby-ish now, up to 54 I think, woohoo!).

Strange to be quoting myself... However, the leaderboards for Freeport seem to be fixed, at least my houses are showing up again. Hopefully it won't be necessary to go to the door like I said above, in order to enter, but just in case...

Provided the leaderboards keep working as they should: Freeport server, medium homes, Soap Bubble Vale should get everybody to the place.

i had to go check this one out. absolutely beautiful- prettier than snow globes even and that one is really neat.

Thanks! And please do