More City Sims?

Has anyone felt the frustration of 'damnit, i've hit my prim budget'? I certainly have and it is getting very frustrating at times. There are 4 double prim sims (city sims) and as far as I can see, they are put the VERY bad use! There isn't really anything to do in them. The owners either havnt been online ni 6 months or there are plots of land 'hogged' for 'prim space'. I can't honestly see the need for extra prims in a double prim sim especially when most builds are plain boxes.

I have said this before and I shall ask it again... Is there any chance that some new sims with the double prim bonus will be added, for the more conructive ideas of the residents, and not just for the people whoe buy the land 'because they can'.

Eh. The city sims were a failed experiment. They'll only become successful once the land gets "freed" and sold to people who actually use it. Until then, I don't think LL should consider opening up even more failed experiments, especially since they only get half-revenue from them.

What if... and let's be open minded here... but what if the city sims would have some reinforcement for specific Terms Of Use. For example. You could only buy land on a city sim if you actually pretend to do something useful with it by taking full advantage of it. The "usefulness" could be determined by a measure of both prim count and dwell.

* High prim count and zero or close to zero average monthly dwell = probably just stacked wooden blocks all over the place, or just built a house for yourself to live in.

* Low prim count and zero or close to zero average monthly dwell = what did you buy it for??

* Low prim count and fair to high dwell = You have something interesting going on.. but not making the best use of land.

* High prim count and fair to high dwell = Best use possible.

Of course, there can be some occasional linden liason inspection, just to avoid any loopholes to this someone might exploit.

What do you say??

I agree with you there Marker, I think LL should impliment not only the city sims with special TOS, but other features could be implimented each with their own set of rules and TOS.

How about also, if you dwell is constantly very high, how about a system that would recognise this and give that plot a 'prim bonus', alloying the lot to have more prims... that would be a similar thing to what Philip said in his blog about the land thing ( cant remeber exactly, but if you've read one of his blogs you've proabbly skimmed over it).

That might be good... but not as an automatic system. You probably could have your high dwells and be eligable to manually apply for extra prim allowance. The reason is that some people might just be happy with what they've got already, or maybe the land they have isn't configured well (topologywise) to build anything else more significant inside.
Just an idea anyhow.

I was just thinking the other day... why is SL 95% do-whatever sims and 5% city sims?

I think it would be pretty cool if there was another block of city sims somewhere in the middle of the map (i.e. put it on the edge now and it becomes centralized as more land is added in the future.)

That way you'd have a more metropolitan sort of flavor, rather than just one crop of skyscrapers surrounded by endless suburbs.

I'd actually love it if the city sims got moved west somewhere, where actual people would see it.

You have no idea how many people I talk to, who have been ehre for months, that have never heard of Nova Albion.

Grignano? Where's that?

As for special TOS rules and whatnot.. meh, why? I bought the land not so I could put a club on it, but where I could use the 2000 prims for my own uses. Or not. it's none of your business.

LF

being that SL is somewhere between 300 - 400 sims it's quiet reasonable that someone wouldn't know all of them. I don't know about you but exploring 7 -> 10 sq miles is time consuming, and by the time you finish it's all changed.

If the city was actually used to house a city that would be great. The idea of linking prim allocation to dwell intrigues me.

The dwell idea is bad because it isn't under the owner's control. Are you suggesting LL should snatch up land they have sold just because not enough people have visited? And without dwell in the equation, number of prims becomes silly as anyone can make a bunch of tiny transparent cubes.

West? You mean out in the middle of the private islands? You're probably wishing they were a bit further east and closer to Ahern and the Welcome Area.

I like this first city where it is. Close to the Welcome Area, relatively speaking, but far enough away that it has it's own space. True, there aren't multitudes of new people streaming through the streets, yet I do encounter a new person on a regular basis there as they start to explore beyond the areas surrounding Ahern.

If the goal is a busy urban center then yes, Nova Albion is suffering from a few problems. There is not a whole lot to do within the four neighborhoods that comprise it and there has been no real marketing of the city up to this point (among other things). If this doesn't change it will only get more obscure as the world grows and as other dense population centers form.

I disagree that is is a failed experiment, as another poster put it. It is a work in progress. If it was to be judged solely on its development from its beginning 'till now I would agree that it has failed to live up to the definition of a bustling metropolis. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will Nova Albion be all that it is capable of becoming within this first few months of it's existence. Check back in a few years when it has had time to evolve, age and take on some of the characteristics of an urban center that has developed a history of its own.

Khamon Fate remarked a few months back that it would have been better if the Lindens had auctioned fewer larger parcels in the city areas than the more numerous smaller plots. I think the city would have developed a bit faster if they had done that. As it was there were a lot more land owners in the city to start with, each doing their own thing on their own plots of double prim land. As happens in other areas, each land owner had their own vision for developing their plot(s). The infrastructure the Lindens provided did help to keep the visual organization of a city intact.

As people left and the remaining land owners increased their share of the available city land, the development of more cohesive builds in the city has occcured. An example are The Brownstones I own in Grignano. They would not be able to exist unless I had the extra land I was able to acquire in Grignano over the last few months. The same could be said about Marcos Fonzarelli's ARMORD Lab in Miramare or Friday Fonzarelli's builds in Sistiana. The double prims are indeed a nice bonus. Still, in order to build large compelling content there is a need for either 1) people to pool their efforts and work on a joint project or 2) an individual has to acquire enough land to create an extensive build on their own. There has to be connections throughout the city, like a working trolly line, businesses that compliment one another and things that refer to other things (guides, directories, a brochure in one part of the city for a business in another part of the city, etc.). Even better, a garbage can with trash in it from another business down the street. Stuff that gives life to a place.

More importantly... people. Eggy Lippmann posted recently that it was the people that would get him to go visit a place like the city... visiting friends or perhaps business assocites and clients. The city has to become more people friendly. There have to be people who call it home, like Lordfly in Grignano and the folks in the TigerTor Apartments in Miramare. There have to be shop owners there to greet customers. While the trolly is offline maybe get someone to drive a bus over to Ahern, pickup a load of newbies and take them downtown.

Until the Lindens can overcome the problems caused by 25-30 avatars gathered in one place, the city (or any area really) will never be a fun place to hang out. The lag from that large a group is simply too much to bear. With the current technical limitations, the city is more fun for me to explore on my own or with a few friends. It's a nice backdrop to having a chat with friends or exploring/shopping in a unique location.

Second Life is still primarily a place to play and a place for hobbyists to dabble in 3D builds, texturing and scripting. Because of that, development of engaging content will take a longer time to come about... people will be doing it in their spare time. When the time comes that people are able to seriously augment their income with what they do in Second Life then you will see faster development of content and more immersive builds developed.

I was one of the first inhabitants of Nova Albion back in April (only six months ago). The city has only just started to develop it's own personality, style and (important) history. I imagine that we will soon start to see more interaction among the city land owners as we begin to work together to make Nova Albion a growing urban center. Getting a whole bunch of people working together toward a common goal always takes time and there has to be good reasons for people to do it in the first place. Not all the city inhabitants will necessarily desire to work together in that way, another aspect of what happens when you throw a group of strangers together in one place. It really does boil down to, "I own this land and I can do with it what I want." The Freedom of Second Life!

Better technology and technical fixes from the Lindens will help, including the ability for more avatars to gather in one place comfortably. When prim limits are eventually increased across the The Grid, the city will benefit by being able to make even more detailed content or large towers to grace the skyline.

I hope to see other urban centers scattered around the world eventually, either jumpstarted by the Lindens (like Nova Albion was) or developed more by residents (like the city of Neualtenburg in Anzere). I know that having double prims to build with is a nice benefit. One needn't wait for the Lindens to open another set of city sims. A group of like-minded folk could purchase or pool their land, build their own urban infrastructure and divide the remaining land up amongst themselves and give themselves double prims to work with by limiting where they could build.

Good G'al -- I didn't set out to write a book! I guess my love for Nova Albion is showing. I'm in for the long haul and look forward to seeing how this city has developed by the time it's one year anniversary comes around in March of 2005. I better get crackin'!

I'd like a crack at making a really good city building one time. I'd like to build a big, modern sky scraper that is in a cool modern shape, and which looks slick, all plate glass in black shade...

Even better, I'd like to rent out office space inside and have flocks of SL people get into a suit for a few hours a week to hold meetings about all their stuff at their offices in my skyscraper.

We could all get short haircuts and smart glasses and the businesses scattered throughout SL could all be represented in the city. That's half the excitement of a city, seeing the important powerhouses of a nation all together, and being in the place where all the money is and deals are done, and where the stock market is, and all that kind of stuff

I used to have a smart corporate office in Gregano Towers, but the towers shut sadly... Now I have no shiny, smart corporate office...

i did not say that people should loose land if their dwell is low... i do not know how you got that from my post :/

Jsecure, i'd love that too... have you read my post in the services forum? i mentioned an idea like the one you have. if you'd be interested IM me ingame if ya want

Alan,

I didn't catch your post, but that's cool that you have an idea on the same lines as this one If the opportunity ever comes up and you're working on a tower block, I'd love to help out in some way

yay, cool ok now all we need is LL to build us a few city sim, ban the land barons for a few days till the auctions r over then give massive press coverage on the builds

Yeah it'd be cool There's nothing as cool as a slick skyscraper bustling with businesses and people