Nautilus

Well put. I think there really is room for all of our different needs. I liken it to any other type of software platform. Take music synthesizers for instance. They all come with factory preset sounds -- or "patches" as they are called. Some people just stick with the presets. Others tweak the presets to make them a little more personalized. Still others reject the presets entirely and start from scratch. I like them all.

So I think you still would be here had LL endorsed a Steampunk theme. You would have either done it very differently, or chosen another theme that you saw a need for or that you are as passionate about. It's all good.

I'll be looking into this Atlantis neighbor of yours.

Nautilus..I've walked it till my feet hurt, sailed it till my Tetra 35 started shipping water (which it did..not sure why) and finally I've spent the last couple of days looking down on it from my blimp. Oh..and I even found an island (a small one) in Barbarossa that's not even on the map..yet.

I think the Moles have done a fantastic job and deserve a pat on the back for a job well done. I love those houses in Anath, Hannibal etc and the Port at Mlachthi is just great. I particularly like the way they haven't gone totally classical but have lobbed in the odd quirky bit..like the occasional crashed space craft.

Flying up and down the beautifully laid out lawns and gardens however I have begun to develop a few reservations. I remember last year standing on those expansive 'empty' rolling hills of Corsica and then writing in the Forum advising everyone to get over there with their cameras..because it wasn't going to stay that way long. Sadly I have a similarly ominous feeling about what I see below me..take those pics now folks while you can! Having said that I did wonder how Bay City would turn out and I do think it now looks pretty good (with the odd exception..ie the odd unfinished tower block or two).

We are moving into uncharted territory with Nautilus though, this will be the first time a city has been sold off, the city being those wonderful houses in Anath etc I mentioned. We read in an earlier reply that those houses will be sold with the land but the houses will remain the property of the Guv'nr and setting auto-return will see them deleted. What residents do with their property is entirely their choice (and quite rightly so) however I do find myself shifting uneasily in my seat at this one (as I'm sure the moles who created the city do too). If I were buying a plot in the city, I'd be buying it for what it was..a plot with a house in a classical city..problem is..will it stay a classical city? and that question can only be answered by my neighbours. I think LL might have pitched a little short on this one..I think they should have set a covenant on the city property..buy the property as seen (including the house)..and keep it that way (within reason). Maybe LL felt they wouldn't sell the property if they imposed strict controls, based on what I saw at Bay City; I suspect they probably would.

Anyway those were my thoughts as I gazed down from above, one thing's for sure, what I see below me will change..folks get those pics while you can,

Perre..

Having said all that it occurs to me that of course no land has been set for sale yet..so who knows what covenants, if any, are being planned..

I remember wanting to get into Bay City, the the stupid prices started appearing and i just went "pffft".

Same thing will happen to this new land opened by LL, stupid prices in the auction with stupid builds going up wrecking the theme of the place. Same thing that happened to Bay City in the beginning will happen with this new land mass.

There are vast swathes of old mainland laying in ruins, vast swaythes of old mainland for sale as well. Too much land, not enough people and now LL stick up a whole new bunch of land in Second Life knowing fine well that it will either get wrecked with idiotic builds, be sold off by land baron money sucking leeches or will have vast sections of it for sale for a long long time...

...then theres the effect of the credit crunch on everyone...only the folks with a fair bit of cash will buy into this, the rest of us will continue on in the private sims or struggle on the hideously unkempt old mainland.

If this is a way to get more premium members then good luck LL...your gonna need it.

Unfortunately, I suspect you're right. I got outbid on land in Bay City and afterwards I was so glad I hadn't won the auction 'cos the place ended up a mess. (Not sure if it still is 'cos I haven't been back).

I keep hearing how great Nautilus is, but when I was there I was lagging so bad I couldn't see anything. Just some empty houses and what looked like an empty mall. I don't get the Magellan thing either. Is this some sort of injoke that we're all meant to automatically get without anyone explaining it to us?

I want to be excited about this new land mass, but I'm just not. Sorry, Lindens.

I haven't seen this mentioned here yet, forgive me if I missed it though, but I just found an underwater cave full of glowing crystals and jellyfish, its well hidden underneath a small island in Howe - South Channel! Very cool indeed.

Handy

There are some parts of Bay City that have really developed nicely. I love the area in Handa near the Primouth dealership, Rollers near the theater is shaping up nicely. the area around Falconmoon and Argos is really taking on a "downtown Bay City" feel, and so on. There are still some areas that are "meh" and some ugliness here and there (the full bright slave auction place and the twin uglies at Docklands/Imaginario for example), but overall it is shaping up nicely.

Weren't these supposed to start auctioning today?

/me sees nothing Nautilusy on the auction page..

edit: and, if anybody's going to Jack's office hour today, maybe they could mention that there are some sims in this region that really are not behaving well. Though I don't have any names off the top of my head, most everybody I've talked to who's explored the area has run into some issue..

Likewise: some of them can *really* lag, much more than an essentially empty region should. I've walked off into space within regions in Nautilus, in behavior I usually only see with bad sim crossings.

Is it just me who doesn't know who the Moles are?

Are they Lindens?

Favoured SL residents? Why aren't we told who they are? (I could of missed the notice...)


Are any of the Moles posters on this forum?

I think if any really great builders or LL employees want to do a build, I would like to see them given license to go all out...Nautilus is just not that impressive IMHO. Go big or don't do it at all..I really don't see the point of this except as a poor copy of what really good estate creators/managers are doing already and they actually build community too.

I would much rather see LL have a special program of perks and support for proven community/estate managers than do a mediocre build like Nautilus to ramp up land sales. I would offer NCI and Caledon and Oyster Bay (and others...as Desmond says we don't even know who they are but Nautilus gets press) breaks on tier, publicity and info on current projects for input. If the next migration are more tourist inclined, then working with established proven managers in developing activities and first hour experiences makes a lot more sense to me.

If there is room for all, then why is this not happening already with the established and proven residents?

If there are LL employees itching to build, then give them some land for free and have a contest...

Anything but BayCity and Nautilus...




Disclosure: I'm not a estate manager/community creator, would be terrible at it and admire people who can do it tremendously

It isn't so much an "in joke" as an ongoing story that a group of people are involved in... Magellan Linden made an appearance at the Nova Albion anniversary a couple of years ago (Nova Albion being the city that covers parts of four sims in the Miramare/Barcola area) and shortly afterward pretty much dropped off the map. A group of us who like to regularly explore the grid decided to try to find out what happened to him, and it just evolved from there. Other people have gotten interested in the proceedings from time to time and joined in. If you read the 'Where's Magellan' thread from the beginning, it might (hopefully) make more sense.

You missed the notice. It was all in the blog a good long time ago now.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/02/08/the-linden-department-of-public-works/

and

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/02/15/the-department-of-public-works-needs-you/

Will probably tell you more about moles

Mari
(Who applied, but was not accepted into mole-dom)

OR:

If Magellan didn't exist...

... we would have invented him.

I haven't spoken to Jack about it in the last couple of days, but as far as I know the auctions are still scheduled to start on Friday. See Jack's post at http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/10/20/new-city-area-discovered/

I haven't heard of any covenants or parcel content restrictions, and I think we'd have announced that sort of thing much earlier. But let's hope everyone builds a nice Nautilus-ish building on their parcel!

I sure hope Michael, I really do 'cuz it is so pretty in Nautilus. I dunno, though: I mean I hafta look at that thing behind my Bay City plot every day, too.

How about making the buildings on the parcels you're auctioning free-to-copy to encourage people to keep them and expand on them instead of replacing them?

I think that Jack posted that they were going to make those builds available as freebies in the market area on Friday.
They did much the same in Bay City. I've got bits of Bay City builds and street furniture hanging in the sky somewhere.

T'was Michael who talked about that..

/327/04/288237/2.html#post2186412

Making the specific builds on the land they're auctioning free to copy would let people shift-drag and delete the whole build, and so get the same thing that was already there... but owned by them. That would get around the problem that they can't transfer objects with land in auctions.

Per Jack's office hours, auction is still scheduled to start tomorrow (Friday).

I've been having moments of compulsive arithmetic lately: There are 30 sims in Nautilus City Island, of which 8 double-primmed ones are to be auctioned--or, the equivalent of 4 full sims of land area. With full-sim Mainland tier at US$195, I figure they're getting about US$25/month/sim of tier out of this deal, if we include the 22 Linden content sims.

Should one count those sims in the average? Well, a private Estate would have to pay for its citadel and temple and crash sites and etc. Maybe they could get by with OpenSpaces, so maybe the comparable cost isn't a full US$295/mo for those sims. But it wouldn't be zero, either.

I'm not arguing that LL shouldn't populate new lands with fresh content. It's just compulsive arithmetic.

(Extra credit: Calculate the Profit on LDPW Mole wages for the hours spent making Nautilus City.)

Easy. Their advantage only extends so far. Not far at all when it comes to creativity, which they concede by using moles. Less on a timeline, since they have never seemed to consistently enforced what would be necessary to keep it completely themed. One dedicated person will have a more consistent product after a month or two. LL has advantages, but I don't think they would be foolish enough to spend the manpower on what would be needed to compete with the theme people. First of all, to maintain a consistent theme, it helps to start a bit weird, and only a few Lindens are sufficiently weird.

I'm George Smiley and, frankly, I'd like to know who the moles are too.

You might want to investigate "M".

This was exactly the thought I had, everything runs nicely into each other at the moment, take away a few of the current buildings and start putting out modern condos etc. and all the good intention an theme is lost.
I love the idea, but without the inclusion of covenants Nautilus will loose its charming theme.

One thing to consider is that regardless of how the actual city turns out, there are still many areas on the Nautilus island that are very picturesque. There are many sims of water around it for sailing, water views etc.
I have noticed that land surrounding the island has shot through the roof cost wise just recently since the announcement though not everyone seems to have gotten the message and lower priced land can still be had.
Last night I managed to snag some lovely protected water front land that is approx 1.5 sims away from the island and is perfect for sailing to and around it. I managed to get this for a lot less than most protected coastal parcels on sale atm.
It is worth considering for those who don't want the limitations of Nautilus parcels or don't want to pay what might be inflated auction price but would like to be in the vicinity of the island.
This was the reasoning behind my choice to buy the land I got last night

They are actually already there, all the urns and boxes have the homes in them. They just aren't set for sale yet.


I've been falling through the pavement along the canal at sim crossings a lot, much more often then normal.