We are rapidly nearing the completion of new regions dedicated to providing space for six themed communities, a combination start zone and events center, and high performance sports territory. We hope to have some of these online by Tuesday, March 25th.
The themed communities include Dark Forest and Oriental on one region; Venice and Cyber Punk sharing another. The area holding Wild West Town and Native American Village will be ready soon after the other regions. In order to maximize technical performance and allow communities room to expand, each of these areas will build with a limited number of primitive objects. If a community proves successful enough to warrant expansion, they will be able to grow into a future region alongside their current settlement.
The new start zone and events center will be the model for main points that newbies enter after finishing the “Prelude” island training. We plan to ramp up to a large number of events nearby that will offer a rich experience for newbies and veterans alike. This area will be spread over two regions to allow for a large number of residents and minimal effect on performance.
The sports region will allow residents to participate in Lindenball, SLB Swordfighting, Gun Tag and a wide variety of other games and see what the experience is like with minimal lag. We hope to work with quite a few of you to use this area to test out games that you develop.
While the start zone is constructed and the themed communities get started, we are maintaining some zoning guidelines on the new territory. In the near term, we won’t be opening the additional territory to individual landowners. However, we will be releasing a large amount of land owned by Lindens on the current map and making it available for purchase. Also, per earlier announcements, we will release the land of inactive beta residents. Folks seem especially excited about this plan and we hope to have specific details in the next few weeks. Finally, by moving some of the Sports games to this new area, small plots of land previously housing these facilities will become available.