I was pretty happy this past week! The four seater buggies arrived! After a long wait that seemed interminable, There finally got them done. Now this wasn’t an easy project. They couldn’t just add some seats and voila, instant four seater.  A major concern was the avatar animations. I understand that The Chaz did most if not all of the work on that. Kudos for a job well done!   

Now some people have been using a “patch” that allowed them to see and use all buggies as four seaters. This isn’t the best idea anyone ever had. It has caused server issues, the animation is horrible, and for those who weren’t using the patch, the buggies looked like Flintstone cars with the back seat passengers running for their lives to keep up with the buggy. The conflict between the There servers and the individual client causes flicker and is one way to see that there’s a problem. There.com requested that this patch be removed from Thumdar’s site and he withdrew it at once. Considering the issues it creates, I hope anyone still using it will remove it from their computers as well. 

Not all was wonderful with the new four seaters. The first ones, being shop buggies, were supposed to have “locks”. They didn’t. This isn’t a problem as far as I’m concerned, but the issue was brought up in the forums and TheChaz assured those who asked that this was an oversight it would be corrected on Friday. It was, and now those of us who have unlocking buggies with build dates of 12/20 - 12/21/06 may have rare buggies whose value will go up with time. I’m hanging on to mine, and won’t be taking TheChaz up on his offer to swap them. If you got one without a lock and want to swap it, email TheChaz and he’ll arrange to meet you in world to make the trade. 

Some of us had another interesting situation with the four seaters. When we brought out a Purple Kong buggy, we actually saw a slightly modified ZMW Fyrebird! Interestingly it didn’t have a roll bar, and only had lod0. Lod1 and 2 were missing. It also didn’t have the FireChicken on the hood, but that’s a whole other story that I prefer not to go into. (Blush) This was reported to There and in the forums. TheChaz told us that this was a very old test model. It probably also has broken back seat animations, but I never got around to checking that. He went on to tell us that we should correct the problem by exiting the client, then deleting the “bg directory in: “C\programfiles\There\Thereclient\Resourses” This fix assumes you have There located in C:\Programfiles, which most of us do. Then restart there and no more red ZMW.

 

  

My problem with that was that I HATE looking at solid white buggies forever while they load. I own over 400 buggies, and when I pull one out I want to see it NOW! Yeah, not a lot of patience here... LOL. So, what I did was use Windows Explorer and go into the “bg” folder and delete only the model file called m005bg. That solved the problem without losing all the other files in that folder. Use this fix at your own risk. I make no guarantees that it will work for you. One good thing I saw from issue is that it seems apparent that There DOES intend to release the 4 seater to the developer program. Why test a designer buggy if they aren’t? It’s just a matter of time, I hope... and I also hope that time won’t be long in coming! 

If you don’t want to wait and a shop buggy is ok with you, go to the shops, click on the dropdown menu for transportation, then buggies, then 4-seaters. The buggies come in four flavors, the Black is the one I got, but they also have Zebra, the Kong, and the Love (which is pink). They all cost 14,500t or you can rent one for 3,625t a day.

 

OK, moving on, many people have speculated as to the speed and stability of the four seaters. I went to our expert on this, Ovni, and asked if he would run his standard tests. He not only did that, he even did them with and without passengers!  Here is what he found:

 All tests done in Cangrejo island, starting at 5 pm and finishing at 6.30pm Dec. 23 06. The buggy used for the test: Zebra 4-Seater buggy.

Max Speed:500kms

With 4 avatars aboard: 450kms

Speed flying back :400kms  

The Zebra 4 seater buggy on water test shows to be 100kms less than a regular 2 seater buggy (maximum speed of a regular 2 seater its over 600kms). The 4 seater takes a longer distance to get full speed. The stability its better but only because the full speed its only 500kms which took me one hour or more to get to without flying back. The 4 seater starts flying back at 400kms so its rare to get 500kms and no accidents. 

The 4 seater buggy in the water test and fully loaded ( 4 avatars aboard) it will lose 50kms in speed, to get a maximum speed of 450kms, it will still have the flying back action at 400kms and it doesn’t matter how fat the avatars are. 

In race track performance the stability is the same or better than a regular 2 seater. BUT... If you intend to race in a 4 seater buggy be sure not to take your ex with you in any seat, since talking will seriously mess up your performance. If you have some of your friends in the buggy with you typing while you’re racing, it’s also a performance reducer. If you talk or type, don’t race. This is especially critical if you’re about to enter into a curve or are getting close to a ramp. 

What’s good about this buggy? It’s a pleasure car to take 3 friends with you and let them talk and talk ‘till they get tired or as long as you enjoy sharing the scenery of There from the ground. 

Ok is good to race too, but do it alone or be ready to get a low place in the race. The best recommendation in a race is to keep full speed, eyes open have a good internet connection and lots of luck. It doesn't matter how many seats you have, what matters how many people will be telling you jokes when you drive! Ovni.  

That wraps it up for the most complete rundown on the four seaters I could give you. I hope it was informative.

Since this is the last column for 2006,  I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! (I hope I can still say that without being bothered by the PC crowd).