Choosing a Parcel of Land

Is there a list of SIMS anywhere with their category and how recent they are ? What else would you suggest as important when choosing a parcel of land ?

I am only interested in mainland with no estate fees / covenant. The last plot I bought had a really ucky climate .. just like England cloudy and grey. So I move on and hope to do better !

There are a few things here that I don't understand. Please help me out:

1) What do you mean by the "category" of a region (i.e. sim)?

2) Where did you find a region with "ucky climate"? Normally the weather is the same across all of SL. Was there a weather generator active nearby?

When choosing a parcel there is only one criterion: location. This means: nice surroundings, no lagmosters (e.g. clubs), camping places or XXX rated clubs nearby.

Sims above a certain level, or land above a certain height are going to be in the clouds. There is a way to turn off clouds, but I prefer not to do so. Of course clouds at ground level is called fog. Foggy London. Oddly it wasn't particularly foggy when I was in England. I am rambling.

I like as much information as possible and went looking for something similar eons ago. The closest I could find was the SL Wiki (which I do not recall the location) but it was way out of date.

Search in the land sales search after you select the tab for For Sale: Mainland. This will filter out estates. Once you teleport to a sim, check how high you are on the land you are standing on. If it's below 150 meters, you won't have that issues with clouds. Most terra is below the cloud level.

To answer your original question, there is not a comprehensive list of sims with the things you are asking for listed as far as I know.

IM Sarah Nerd inworld and tell her what you are looking for. She should be able to help.

Join the SL Land Answers Unlimited group. It's free and you can ask questions in the group IM. You'll get answers back from those who are experienced in dealing with land.

The clouds start at around 180 m elevation. I am not aware of any mainland region reaching to that height.

PS: Actually, England has pretty nice climate, compared to many other places. And London used to be much foggier before they regulated the Thames. But I digress.

Ah, by "category" the OP meant the server category! Well, I don't think that this matters a lot. Neighbours which may or may not induce lag are much more of an issue. Better in a lag-free cat 4 region than in a club-infested cat 5 place.

Good point. Most servers are class four or five and provide decent performance. It's the scripts on the various sims that determine the lag, so you have to TP in and see for yourself how the performance is.

Thats cleared up the clouds issue (btw England still very ucky at the moment).

I'll give my previous home a negative plug ..hehe Stinkhorn, and sure enough altitude 165 m.

On the sim performance, I get the gist. Resident activity is way more important than Sim capability (in this modern age). Ok i guess I can live with that!!

I'll follow up the IM's in world .. ty all

Doesn't really matter if it is a class 3 as LL are upgrading all class3's to 4's over the next 6 months anyways. And actually some class3's like mine outperform many class5's just because they aren't full of crap

A few tips that have helped me with land selections:

Fly around the area and look at the neighbouring parcels. Not just what they look like, but what permissions are set. Build-enabled & no object return? It could soon be an eyesore if it isn't already. Obviously, things such as banlines and/or security devices (if they bother you), shouting objects or lag pits should be avoided.

Think of where on the plot you'll be building (ground level or sky) and see if the view is to your liking.

If a lot of the area around the parcel is for sale, be cautious. Anyone could move in and start a huge, lag-spawning business or put up a hideous build. Of course, anyone could sell up at any time, but regions with little land for sale are likely to change less than regions with lots.

Check the size of plots. Areas with moderately sized residential plots (2000-4000ish metres) seem fairly stable... big enough for people to be settled, not so large that costs will have them thinking of quitting.

None of this is guaranteed. The cool neighbour could move out and sell to an adcutter. The pretty garden next door could be terraformed into a flat, ugly platform. The value of land can move down as well as up. May contain nuts, and all the usual disclaimers.

Go to the view menu, turn on property lines and look out for 16m plots near your land. Anything that is intended as an "ad plot" is likely to ruin your skyline one day.

The sun is splitting the trees in England today

To find out the sim class, when you are in-world go to help on the toolbar, select "About Second Life" and look at the third line that gives you a sim number. Anything above about 2000 is a Class 5 sim.

The mainland continents to the east of the grid are all Class 5, the continents in the center of the grid are generally Class 3 or Class 4, and the Class 3s are being updated.

Land that is at the shoreline, or close to it is generally cloud-free.

One important thing to do before buying land: turn up your draw distance.

I found a plot of land in a nice area (or so I thought). Before attempting to buy it I turned my draw distance up from 64m to 160m. I suddenly saw ad farms all over the place and a giant sex club nearby. I really don't like the idea of large crowds and lots of lag so close to my home. What seemed at first to be a nice area suddenly didn't seem so nice after all.

I'm on my third home here..first one was on an estate and it was a waste of tier..second was nice until a mall came in behind me with a dance club..and ad farms popped up..


Now I'm on a mountain...overlooking a river...it's quiet..no ad farms..the owner of the sim wants to preserve the integrity of the place..that's part of why I settled there (and paid much more for the land than if it was a square rectangle of grass).

It pays to look around, do some research..talk to the owner...I looked for weeks...flew around when I found a nice spot but always found something wrong. I wanted peace and quiet and a more natural look for my land. I settled for a smaller house than I had - which is fine! But I found my idea of heaven.

I don't think I'll be moving any time soon...

I have always only ever rented, even though I have that odd desire to have a bit of mainland for myself, I am just too afraid of what might show up next door. I once rented on mainland, that was er, different too. Now I rent a house on someones private sim and its fantastic and quiet! No lag, rarely anyone home but me or my friends. I cant do any land manipulation or anything, but its good for now.

More 1st class replies in the last day or two .. wow you all so kind to take the time ty all.

I'm still looking at parcels all over and with the advice received reckon i'll pick the right spot lol anto

Also look for land in sims with water or roads, because this is less land for less neighbours which also means the prim allowance for that percentage of land never gets used so the sim never can reach and is less likely to get near 100% capacity. Also try to buy in a sim where there are few plots for sale, meaning stable owners.