Revitalizing the mainland

One office hour yesterday dealt with (in general, although ad plots did unfortunately end up dominating the discussion) the topic of what potential steps LL could take to "pretty up" the mainland.

On the one hand there could be Linden enforced zoning of any shape/kind (residential vs commercial for instance) although it would seem that the preference is on something that can be clearly defined, rather than something that's open for interpretation (for instance: no ads of any kind, remove the ability to set objects for sale, etc).
(Zoning would be limited to certain sims, *not* as a general mainland rule)

On the other hand whether the only kind of "protected land" should be roads/waterways/full water sims or if "social/hang-out spots", forests/gardens, etc are wanted as well.

Finally, practical things that tend to discourage people from seeing the mainland as a viable choice for owning land (the visibility issue of "access restrictions" on neighbours who only own a small plot, the time it takes to get encroachment taken care of, etc).

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I feel bad that most people there only ended up talking about ad plots since there is more to it than that, so I thought it might help to start up a topic, compile a list of all the suggestions/comments and then drop it on said Linden .

Recap (my phrasing, not quoted):
1) If you'd prefer buying on a Linden zoned sim as opposed to the "full mainland freedom" experience, how would you like them to zone it?
2) Should LL provide other kinds of "protected land"? If so, what kind.
3) Common small annoyances for mainland owners (along with a proposed fix if possible)

Lag sharing, and especially avatar slot sharing, are still big issues. I know some people have been driven out to islands entirely by this.

Resale could also be an issue, as could parcel boundaries. (The existing Linden zoned sims - the city near Luna - always sell for ridiculously high prices.)

Do you mean "child agents" with "lag sharing" (avies on a neighbouring sim receiving object updates for the sim as well, contributing in some way to the lag without actually being on the sim) or things like camping so owners can't get to their own land?

By lag sharing, I mean the fact that laggy scripts on someone else's parcel can slow yours down.

By avatar slot sharing, I mean that you can become unable to teleport to your own parcel because your neighbours have too many guests over. This is a far bigger problem because the SL system is actually designed to _depend_ on fair sharing in this regard. (They can't divide avatar slots based on sqm of land owned because if they did, you'd need to own 1310sqm of land to have even one avatar on the sim.)

As a fan of SL sculptures, I wouldn't mind seeing more. Maybe random exhibits along LL roads/SLRR or some kind of kickback to places like Blackwater..


http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-835 !!!

And for people just traveling the grid, /me also points at http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=237250

I suddenly have the mental image of Philip Linden roaming the grid with one of those trash spears and a big black garbage bag.

I would love to see more roads and streams....our mainland sim is flat and everyone is on top of each other with their builds. A nice protected road like some of the other sims would be nice, empty lots with junk on them cleaned up.

If they want to revitalize the mainland, this is a key issue that really needs a solution. But, Yumi is correct, simply basing it on sqm owned would leave a 512 sqm owner with no access. I don't know what the solution would be. But it sure is a pain to be paying quarter or half sim tier and not be able to access your land because there are 40 AVs on a 2048 plot.

I hate to say it, but a lot of this has been covered here...

/327/5f/240071/1.html

I feel Kitty is valid in posting this, since it relates to recent Linden events.

Thanks for doing so Kitty.

1) If you'd prefer buying on a Linden zoned sim as opposed to the "full mainland freedom" experience, how would you like them to zone it?

I think personally it would be nice to have residential and commercial zoning separate. Somewhat of a pain to administer but I like living in places where there's people around who have a common home feeling. I miss that very much from my early days (except the psycho who lived next door and starting hassling me when I got the same colour hair as his reviled RL ex-wife, but I digress).

2) Should LL provide other kinds of "protected land"? If so, what kind.

Riverways, paths (not roads, paths), small parklands and forests, but this is utopia talk cos it is not profitable for LL.

3) Common small annoyances for mainland owners (along with a proposed fix if possible)

Leaving aside the obvious things I'd like to see more default textures and most of all still think Object Visual Muting is the key. You neighbour makes a mess? Hell .. mute it.

One thing they could do is bring back First Land. Clearly 512 for 512 is not going to happen any more but at the moment where's the incentive for people to pay LL at all?

Wearing one of those orange vests you see on the people who are paying their dept to society by cleaning up along the freeway.

LL will always do better auctioning full sims than it would by any type of First Land deal.

The reason for that is clear enough - land barons will be willing to pay just below the market resale price for a sim of land. If First Land is not cheaper than that, there's no point in it, but if First Land _is_ cheaper, it can only lower the money LL get.

I have a horrible, horrible feeling that when the new Havok and Mono go live, they will support only Class 5 sims (the blog today referred to all the Havok 4 test sims being Class 5), so island owners will effectively be forced to upgrade or many items will simply stop working on their islands. Once that happens, the tier differential between mainland and islands will make mainland a better deal again.

You make a good point there, though if only selling the land was still viable to the average schmo then mainland might just get pretty on it's own. Of course, that's all down to greed and politics between the land barons as to the incredible prices ...

/me does not see this happening.

I think Jack's point wasn't that they were on class 5, it was that they weren't on class 6..

edit: as for First Land, I wouldn't mind seeing it come back but LL'll never do that unless they can make sure it's not gamed to the point of being useless again. Maybe they could make it only available to people who've paid at least a 1/2 year of premium up front, instead of to everybody who goes premium.

I was referring to this:



Ie, none of the Havok 4 regions are on Class 4 hardware.

So was I.

I would love to have some means of clearing land that has become a repository for empty boxes, shell casings and the like. When shell casings are left about they eat up prims but you can't get rid of them, unless you return all objects ... which can be a pain in the neck if friends have left things in your home with your permission. Some land on the mainland hasn't been touched in over a year . . . it appears abandoned . . . and is often an eyesore. Similarly, neighbors who try to destroy the neighborhood by building huge ugly things, including posting nude pictures, to drive land prices down, so that they can buy up the land cheaply, make mainland living a challenge.

Wow, I really need to figure out how to find stuff, and explore. There is a Linden city? A zoned Linden city?

What may be the ironic conclusion to all of this is that while Private Estates have often been criticized as being "too restrictive", they may in time come to be viewed as the opposite. You won't see sim residents getting together to AR out the neighbor they don't like by calling his build "harrassment".

I'm glad LL is taking steps to curb the adfarm problems, but I have reservations about the ugly ways this new policy could go. I hope my concerns prove to be wrong.

Zoned mainland belongs on new sims, don't go zoning existing mainland, I purchased unzoned mainland.

If like minded neighbours want to zone their particular piece of a sim then fine, but I don't want LL interfering on existing land.

/me too.

I agree. People bought the older sims not zoned and that's the way they should stay. I do think there should be new sims that offer zoning for those that want them without the risk of having to purchase through land barons. My only issue would be those in the old sims then concerned that their property values could go down since they'll no longer have zoning. Maybe those who prefer zoning should have the option of switching for land on the newer continent, but that sounds like a nightmare to work out.

Mainland will never be zoned. This new rule is as close as we will get.

I would like to see an alternative to full sim auctions which would be a sim set for auction all at once that is divided into 2048 sections and cannot be divided into plots smaller than 2048. I can't see restricting it much more than that because of the subjectivity of what's an eyesore and what's not.

You wanna bet? Watch this space ...well not this one, the blog!