Plenty of Land Available (October 19)

I've recently heard again and again that there is no land available, all the sims are full, and "good spots" are nowhere to be found. An unpleasant few have taken this as justification for behavior that even if it skirts the edges of the Community Standards is not treatment I would wish on a dog. I decided to take a quick tour of the world and see if these assumptions are true or not. My raw numbers will follow; here is a quick summary.

The world as a whole is a quarter available (72% object usage, 73% land ownership). The most empty sim is 55% unowned (Natoma) and there are many in the 40%-50% unowned range. Expensive sims (Aqua, Tan) have slightly more available land than the average and Mature sims, while having more objects than others by volume, have just as much available land as the global average.

Four unusual cases are the two campgrounds (Green, De Haro) and two neighborhoods (Boardman, Brown). These show higher than average levels of ownership but land is available in predetermined lots, some of which in Boardman and Brown are free shop stalls, and most of which are still available. However, it should be noted that Baki Baskerville has bought the center square of most of the lots in De Haro effectively preventing anyone from using them.

Edit: It was brought to my attention that Bonifacio and Gibson are limited by theme so they have been excluded and the results corrected. I've also added results for all PG sims both including and excluding the two expensive sims.

OPEN SIM AVERAGES: TOTAL
------------------------

SIM TYPE	SIMS		OBJ	LAND
--------------------------------------------
Expensive	Aqua		67	63
		Clara		100	79
		Clementina	99	51
		Clyde		52	71
Mature		Chartreuse	94	99
Mature		Da Boom		100	62
Mature		Federal		94	81
Mature		Freelon		78	69
Mature		Hawthorne	60	60
		Immaculate	45	83
Mature		Jessie		64	61
		Kissling	69	100
		Lusk		61	74
		Mauve		77	98
		Minna		57	54
		Mocha		32	75
		Natoma		83	45
		Perry		72	54
		Ritch		72	50
		Rose		82	88
Mature		Shipley		97	65
		Slate		84	92
Mature		Stanford	76	96
		Stillman	63	75
		Taber		55	58
Expensive	Tan		89	69
		Teal		48	84
Mature		Tehama		99	65
		Varney		39	94
		Welsh		65	58
		Zoe		54	79
--------------------------------------------
Averages			72	73



OPEN SIM AVERAGES: BY TYPE
--------------------------

SIM TYPE	SIMS		OBJ	LAND
--------------------------------------------
Expensive	Aqua		67	63
		Tan		89	69
--------------------------------------------
Averages			78	66

SIM TYPE	SIMS		OBJ	LAND
--------------------------------------------
Mature		Chartreuse	94	99
		Da Boom		100	62
		Federal		94	81
		Freelon		78	69
		Hawthorne	60	60
		Jessie		64	61
		Shipley		97	65
		Stanford	76	96
		Tehama		99	65
--------------------------------------------
Averages			85	73



PG SIMS *NOT INCLUDING* EXPENSIVE SIMS
--------------------------------------

SIM TYPE	SIMS		OBJ	LAND
--------------------------------------------
		Clara		100	79
		Clementina	99	51
		Clyde		52	71
		Immaculate	45	83
		Kissling	69	100
		Lusk		61	74
		Mauve		77	98
		Minna		57	54
		Mocha		32	75
		Natoma		83	45
		Perry		72	54
		Ritch		72	50
		Rose		82	88
		Slate		84	92
		Stillman	63	75
		Taber		55	58
		Teal		48	84
		Varney		39	94
		Welsh		65	58
		Zoe		54	79
--------------------------------------------
Averages			65	73



PG SIMS *INCLUDING* EXPENSIVE SIMS
--------------------------------------

SIM TYPE	SIMS		OBJ	LAND
--------------------------------------------
Expensive	Aqua		67	63
		Clara		100	79
		Clementina	99	51
		Clyde		52	71
		Immaculate	45	83
		Kissling	69	100
		Lusk		61	74
		Mauve		77	98
		Minna		57	54
		Mocha		32	75
		Natoma		83	45
		Perry		72	54
		Ritch		72	50
		Rose		82	88
		Slate		84	92
		Stillman	63	75
		Taber		55	58
Expensive	Tan		89	69
		Teal		48	84
		Varney		39	94
		Welsh		65	58
		Zoe		54	79
--------------------------------------------
Averages			67	72



EXCLUDED DUE TO LINDEN OWNERSHIP / NO BUILD STATUS / THEME EXCLUSIVITY
----------------------------------------------------------------------

SIM TYPE	SIMS		OBJ	LAND	NOTES
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Campground	De Haro		69	97	Available Lots
		Green		17	93	Available Lots

Linden Owned	Olive		NA	NA	Sandbox
		Plum		NA	NA	Welcome
		Lime		NA	NA	Welcome
		Ahern		NA	NA	Welcome
		Dore		NA	NA	Welcome
		Morris		NA	NA	Welcome / Sandbox
		Rizal		NA	NA	Sport Sim

LindenWorld	Coney		NA	NA
		Luna		NA	NA

Neighborhood	Boardman	87	89	Available Lots
		Brown		93	56	Available Lots

Theme		Bonifacio	75	100	Nexcorp / Venice
		Blue		55	100	Americana
		Darkwood	44	100	Darkwood
		Gibson		29	100	Nexcorp
		Gray		63	97	Kazenojin
		Oak Grove	40	99	Western Theme
		Sage		54	100	Little Tokyo
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Assumptions: All percentages were rounded up or down in the usual way. I only considered sims that are open for settlement. Those fully controlled by Lindens, set No Build, or limited by group or theme ownership were not included in the averages. Note that even in open sims Lindens own some land and it is counted against the total owned land. Averages also do not differentiate between public land and owned land that is available for sale. More land may be available than the figures would suggest. In some cases you may disagree with my classification of a particular sim. I leave the correction of my errors as an exercise for the reader. Figures are accurate as of October 19, 2003 and may change dramatically after this is seen.

Checkerboarding is a really uncool thing to do, especially when it involves land on a campground. If I recall correctly, you are not supposed to own more than one lot in DeHaro. Sounds like a land speculation scam to me.

thanks for the tip on De Haro - we will followup

Thanks for taking time to update Bonifacio and Gibson.

Thanks for the stats Tiger! Very interesting.

You mention that Natoma is the most empty sim by land ownership. That's likely because it has 83% object usage, which is among the top ten 'object-intense' sims. The stores there take up little room, but contain a *lot* of objects, so it's not necessarily the best place to buy land.

If you find this interesting, you may want to voice some support here:
/13/66/6024/1.html

Thanks, Wednesday. Consider it voiced.

The same is true for Clementina, which has only 51% land ownership, yet is at 99% prim usage. There's lots of land available for purchase, but almost no prims available for building.

Clementina doesn't have a lot of stores, so it's unclear where all those prims are. The governor's mansion is perhaps the likeliest candidate.

I also went on a land search while looking for a place to relocate. My quest for suitable land ended up being a total failure and here is why:

1. Most of the sims with land available for purchase have a high prim count: I bought some land in Da Boom and couldn't even rez my house.

2. The sims that have low prim count are 100% owned or are themed sims: For those like me that want some freedom in their builds and are starving for some creative means of expression, having to settle by building a cabin is pure torture.

3. Many sims that have land available and have low prim count the actual land available can be considered "strips" of land: You can buy a 5 x 25 parcel of land where all you can put up is a fence. The strips of land are located next to big squared parcels, which means you don't have any hopes of expanding.

4. Many sims with available land, most of their land is covered by bodies of water: Taber is a great example of this.

5. Many sims with available land, the actual land is located next to a mountain or on the edge of it: This means you can't edit the land without causing your mountaineer neighbor some grief.

6. During my search I found some parcels of land available only to find out who I would be moving next to: There are griefers in all online games (even in RL) and SL is no exception. They will do things to cause you grief in order to claim your land. This has happened to people I know and they have had to relocate.

Because of all this I had to reclaim the itty bitty land that I had before, and try to resize my house (you have to be very short to enter now) in order to fit it in my land. I just hope that with 1.1 there will be some new sims, even though that would mean a massive land rush, but at least that gives me hope that someone will be kind enough to release their land for others to have an actual chance to make it in this game.

I *totally* sympathize, Kats. It's a tough break for those of us who started recently, but we can hope that when the new sims come online a percentage of the population will move north and leave some nice spots behind.

Also, maybe we can take another perspective on this: in major RL cities, land is hard to come by and often comes in strange shapes. In those cases, you see tall, narrow buildings. Consider it an architechtural challenge! How do you build a usable home/building on a 4x24 strip? Or on a cliffside? That piece of cliff can hold remarkable structures.

Let the strange features of the landscape inspire you.

I own a large number of small plots (all contiguous) in Aqua.
They are all for sale. Only my land in Sage is not for sale.

When folks are looking at available land, don't forget to click on 'owned' land, as many folks are selling.

Oracle Omega

I'm probably going to regret this, but...

There's plenty of good land in Mocha. I already have a large plot there. Please be kind and leave some space open next to my land (it has a giant white bowl-shaped lab floating over it) in case I have to expand.

2 comments:

1-

It is really nice to see someone think about their neighbors. Most people would just buy the mountainside and dig an ugly 90% hole in it.

2-I seem to remember the promise of "new land" when things got to the point they are now. Is this new land part of 1.1 ? I hope so, because I agree things are getting really crowded.

-TK

Soon we will be seeing high rise appartments as there is no land left and people will confined to small crowded appartments in crowded laggy cities....commuting to their ho hum jobs ...on a crowded subway.......for very little money trying to make ends meet each week......oh sorry I got confused with RL.

I thought all this information would help people but it seems like there are those who would rather keep complaining that there's no land and the only solution is new sims. Hey, that's cool if that's your thing. For the ones who want to get out there and do something with what we've got right now I'm going to break it down for you.

And please note, if land is "underwater" it's just a few clicks away from being above water if you edit it. Or build on pilings. Or just float your place over the water.

The following sims bear looking into if you want open land with reasonable object use. You could look at the stats yourself but I'm going to be nice.

Aqua		67	63
Clyde		52	71
Freelon		78	69
Hawthorne	60	60
Jessie		64	61
Lusk		61	74
Minna		57	54
Mocha		32	75
Perry		72	54
Ritch		72	50
Taber		55	58
Welsh		65	58

As I understand it the limit is 10,000 prims so a sim with 75% object usage has 2,500 prims available. That's a lot of prims still available. My figures may be wrong so adjust for yourself if you know better. Have fun.

If you are an anime fan, come and join Little Tokyo, we can get you a plot of land We also have a security system to keep out greifers.

Has Blue changed it's status from a theme-protected sim? I was in there since collecting stats and it's now 21% object usage and around 50% land ownership with the rest public. What happened?

I believe there will be a very strong chance LL will release at least a couple new sims... The simulators used for the 1.1 preview have to go *somewhere*

Shipley is down to 75% object usage, two big builders moved on. One player repaired the mountain she had excavated, the other just left a gigantic hole.

The Americana project in Blue is no longer viable. The pylon will be left in memoriam

They left a big hole behind? I think people should be more considerate when moving out and restore the land to something that looks natural.

If/When I leave "Delerium's Island", I plan to restore it's original bumpiness and some of the land back underwater the way I found it.

I would venture to say that if you jumped inworld, just as soon as it opens Tuesday night, you will find that a lot of land has been released as people are either apprehensive about the tax changes or looking to move to a new neighbourhood. I released a huge section of Mocha myself, in the hopes of finding something more contiguous and maybe just a bit quieter. Being next to Olive is great for all of us in Mocha; we've never had a single thing to complain about - but not all the noise comes from Olive.

Seems this is so. There is a whole lotta free land there now, but it seems that some of the group builds were left behind and are now decaying on public land. Is Crow still playing? I saw an awful lot of stuff belonging to Crow going public....

fen-

Yes, Crow is still playing. He was out of town but should be back on today or tomorrow to clean up! Since builds were not necessarily on ones own land some are decaying till the owners can get there, it is difficult to get all players to release land and de-rez at the same time.

I'll be happy as long as they don't release Lime to the public. If they do, there could be... Reprocussions... Yes...

*CRACK-A-THE-BOOM*

Hee hee.



Anyway I'd be betting that the sims they're using for the demo of 1.1 are thier back-up sims, for in case one of the sim servers explodes, and they need to replace the whole server.

I mean, if Mocha disappeared, I'd be pretty upset, because I live there. I've got a room in the SL welcome house (I think I'm thier first resident) and my lab area is across the bay from there. Interestingly enough I got an email from my Automated Drill at 9:30 am today that it had run out of moves. I thought that was kind of strange that it ran all night but only ran out of moves after the update happened. So I'm guessing it was glitched up by 1.1 We'll see tonight I guess.

Crack-a-the-boom!

not trying to hijack the thread, but I'd love to learn more about your automated drill.. can you tell me a bit more about it?