Definition of "Mainland" and advice regarding land please.

Hi,

I've searched for this with no luck, so what are the names of the mainland areas? is there a list somewhere? Also I'm looking to settle in a wooded area to build my "Hobbit Hole" and practice landscaping. Any suggestions?

Thanks very much,

There are thousands of mainland regions, so you probably don't really want to work from a list.

When using the Search tool to find land for sale, you can specify that only results in mainland are returned with the little dropdown thingy on the top left. If you're wandering around and want to know if the plot you're standing in is mainland or not, check About: Land and look at the Covenant tab. Linden mainland will never have a covenant; other types of land will.

As you're touring around, if you click the title bar of your viewer it will bring up the "About Land" window and the latest viewer will now show you the type of land that you are on such as mainland, private estate - full region or if it is a homestead region.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_Release/1.23#About_Land_Window_Changes

Hi Heart

I'd be happy to show you around, next time we are both on, give a holler.

Basically, mainland is just about everywhere. Islands must be privately bought. Not all islands are open to the public, although some are malls and shops etc.

So just about anywhere you see, will be on mainland. A fun way to explore if you are new is to type in key words and just go places at random really. Then go from there. Or profile peek and teleport places in people's Picks tab.

If you are looking for land, go to the land sales tab in search. If you get a premium membership you get a 512 tier with it. You buy the land but after that there is no tier or LL rental fee. It's complex at first, but ask in here, or go to the cartel hangout, or ask anyone/me/ next time you are in world, too.

It can be difficult to find an area that has a consistent aesthetic point of view. Such as, a wooded area. See, each piece of land is privately owned usually - so people do what they want, usually, on each tiny lot. That can mean a ufo next to a medieval castle, etc.

Finding a good place to rent in can be better aesthetically, since there is usually a unified theme.

Its also good to have property lines turned on if you find an area that you like. Go to view, and check property lines. If a parcel is for sale, it will have yellow lines. When you pull up the map, you can also select land for sale to show, yellow is sale. Purple is auction.

There are a lot of good deals to be had right now, so take your time and look for somewhere you like the best. Chances are, you will stay there quite awhile.

Also if you go to view/land owners at the top toolbar, the land parcels will show by color as to who owns them.

Land for sale is yellow, as Melodie said.

no such thing as a 'wooded area'. you will have to rez your own trees.
i suggest renting for a month before buying, to get your bearings and to know exactly what you are looking for.
you specifically mention landscaping (terraforming). be aware that estate land may have your ability to teraform reduced, disabled, or perhaps hampered by a covenant.

Well unless she meant finding a sim where it had a wooded theme. Then it would. But, land that isn't owned by you personally can of course at any time be changed.

Usually rental sims have themes and covenants (rules clauses of their own, above and beyond Linden Labs rules) as Nina said. That can be a pro or con, depending what it is and what you want.

(Kind of like in real life, neighborhoods that have clauses like, no cars on the lawn...Lol)

LOL! Everywhere? 80% of the land mass, gridwide, is islands, and 20% is mainland.

Mainland consists of groups of regions called "continents". Mainland is the only place where you can buy land directly from Linden Lab; islands are owned by other residents, and you rent from them. Most islands are in fact open to the public, for rental of either residential or commercial property. The best mainland map that I know of that names the continents are Carl Metropolitan's, available for free at NCI Kuula. They automatically update when Carl changes them. I don't know if Zindra is on them yet. This is what the pre-Zindra version looked like: /327/d3/300444/1.html#post2274137

One confusing thing about mainland is that the continent names aren't really used for much; if you type them into the Map, you do not get a view of the continent. You can see continents easily if you zoom out, though --- the large land masses with a lot of land for sale on them.

Personally, I prefer to live on islands, where the zoning ("covenant" often promotes more beautiful regions and a more peaceful environment. Sets of islands owned by a single landlord or company are known as archipelagos, and there are some in excess of 200 sims. I know that Dreamland has some nice wooded sims, as of course does the smaller Caledon. Choose your landlord carefully if you rent on an island, because you have no legal recourse if the owner simply decides to get rid of the sim or to boot you out because your skin is green.
.

Well, it's always nice to make someone laugh.



(ETA: I was referring to private island estates, not those little land chops bordered by water that some people CALL islands.)

So there's no SL National Forest under protection from mini malls and neon signs. Oh well, perhaps building adjacent to or renting within a medieval Sim area?

Clarissa,

I'd love to take you up on a tour.

Another question please. Is there a way to search according to landscape and terrain? Perhaps that would simplify my search.

Thanks again!

P.S.

Thanks Nika,

I'll check out Dreamland for sure.

Okay Heart. Will IM you in a bit.

Some medieval sims do rent and that might be a good way for you to go. Let me dig up some possible landmarks.

No way to search by terrain that I know of. I wish. (And of course, that's no guarantee how they used the actual land once you get there.)

Oh, and Heart: There are a lot of groups for Hobbits, you may want to join a few inworld and ask there.

The first one that came up for me was: http://world.secondlife.com/group/d3662ec1-35b3-59a9-ef60-06b9adf9e899

They say they live in a Hobbit sim called Zecksnine?

Good luck!
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Thanks Clarissa,

I probably will be off line most of the day, doctor appointment and errands to run, so there's no rush at all. I really appreciate your help.

P.S.

Thanks again Nika,

I just like Shire style housing, I don't want to be a hobbit. Although, having them for neighbors would be very nice indeed!

Just a quick note, based on Tyche Shepherd's survey of the grid, as of yesterday the grid was made up of 28,523 regions.

23,028 of them being private regions (islands)
5,495 Linden owned (mainland plus any other sims LL keeps on the grid for other uses)

The Forest of Kahruvel rents land on the edge of the great forest. Salazar Jack is the main forester. He's 100% good

the point remains however, that if you begin on mainland and fly there is indeed a lot of mainland everywhere. there are no single private estates that rival the landmass of mainland.

really i think anyone wanting to buy mainland should prepare to do so soon. mature land is going to hit rockbottom soon due to the zindra fiasco.

Nimue, I think your assumption that private regions are islands is not correct here. Tyche's words from yesterday's survey are:So, presumably the 28523 includes, for example, Ravenglass Rentals, the huge mainland private estate, does anyone know how many sims? I don't see any way to derive the number of islands vs. mainland from Tyche's stats, though I would love to see it.

LL's stats page used to be very clear about this, but sadly, appears to have been a bit TOO clear for LL's tastes.
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You're confusing this ferret. If it's a private estate, in what sense is it mainland?

I'm gonna nom some grapes.

/me hands you seedless red grapes.

It is mainland in that it resides on a mainland continent. It is bordered by other mainland sims owned by LL or by other residents. There are many many such estates, which "sublease" mainland parcels to other residents.

The estate tools that mainland private estate owners use are mainland estate tools, and the estate owner (in this case Prokofy Neva) can buy sims from auction, and pays mainland tier, which is lower than island tier. Residents who rent well within such private estate borders generally have a pretty well-regulated environment; however, if you rent on an edge, your neighbors are just as random as in any other mainland region. Why would you rent mainland? Well, you can get out of a mainland rental easily, without having to buy or sell land, and you can have the mainland experience without being premium. Or maybe you just don't know about islands? Dunno.

See: http://world.secondlife.com/group/a1b0c5e1-447e-f5c8-66bd-713cf720f915
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Then those are mainland, they are not a private estate. They are counted in the mainland sim count.

For my surveys sim and region are interchangeable . LL really refer to them as regions but sim has entered common usage. There are 28523 Main Grid regions/sims in total (as of yesterday) Of which 5495 are Linden owned. The Linden owned includes all Mainland regions (and they account for about 5350 ) and Help/Orientation islands and other special projects (such as the SL6B regions) . The rest (2302 make up private estates - This figure is exactly the same one as LL used to report (There was a slight discrepancy of +/- 10 or so because LL surveyed at midnight SLT whilst I survey around around 11am SLT).


There is also c.220 teen grid regions and c.500 regions in the landstore which I don't survey.

On LL's stats, that is definitely so. Tyche's phraseology is a little unclear to me:If the 5495 is just Linden owned regions, then Ravenglass (and others like it) are not included, no?
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Ravenglass estates will be included in the Linden Owned since they are Tenants who sublease. The Estate owner is Linden Lab. The Estate name is Mainland