Beachfront only Temporary?

My property is on the edge of a mainland sim. Beyond the edge is what appears to be ocean, but I can't enter it. The edge of my property adjacent to this section that can't be entered is underwater - I can't raise the land above the water level. Does this mean that I own land that will permanently be beachfront or does LL sometimes change water level of sims? Could LL add another sim onto the edge of mine? Could this result in my property no longer being beachfront at some point in the future?

Many thanks,

Rhiannon

Likely if they add more land to that side you will lose the waterfront.

The only time waterfront on mainland stays that way is if it is something you can fly over/in.

Thanks, Macphisto. Then I might not want to invest in that cool underwater castle... ^_^

LOL nope. Not just yet.

If you are lucky they won't develop it and you will get an edge of the sim free of clutter. They have slowed down on land printing lately and there is so much out there for sell that you have a good bet of it staying that way for awhile. Good luck!

It really depends on where it is, Rhiannon.

I have some "beachfront" that is exactly the same way. Theoretically LL might decide to create a sim there, but it looks like doing so wouldn't really be possible because there are private estate islands in the area out in the void off the coast. It's also on what appears to be the completed edge of the Corsica continent. The Lindens do build the continents to a plan, and typically don't just willy-nilly add sims to finished continent edges. There are some spots on the grid where there wasn't room to add a row of protected ocean sims like what Macphisto is describing.

On yet-unfinished continents, you'll often see land that just butts up against the void, obviously unfinished. If yours is an obviously-finished continent's edge, and is an older, completed continent, then you're probably safe to assume it's going to stay the way it is.

I wasn't totally sure about mine, and had my trusty mainland expert Cristalle Karami come over and look at it, and she agreed mine was probably safe. You could drop me an IM and I could take a look at it for you. And if I'm stumped, we could bug Cristalle.

You can also just live your dream of your cool underwater castle, and think up a back-up plan in case the neighborhood goes to pot. So plan B could be a cool, swingin' sky castle floating in clouds.

Thanks, Avion!

So it depends on whether I'm on an old continent? An unfinished continent? Ummm....I don't even know what continent I'm on! How do I find out what continent I'm on, if it's old or new, unfinished or completed?

I like your idea of a plan B. ^_^ I just would like to know if I can expect to log in one day and suddenly find that I am in the middle of a new land mass rather than on a beachfront.

Thank you!

Rhiannon

That's not really beachfront, although it looks like it. It's void...you can't go there, because there IS nothing there. Later, LL could decide to put a sim there as part of a land expansion.

"Waterfront" in SL is complicated. There's void, which looks pretty but cannot be used for any other purpose...and may one day be replaced by some sort of land. There's "Linden protected water" which is an actual sim, all or mostly water, owned by "Governor Linden". It will *usually* remain undeveloped and is the most desirable type of waterfront to be next to. There is waterfront owned by someone else. This latter type is iffy...the present owner, or the next one, could decide to put up banlines, or raise their land out of the water, or put down a huge megaprim and build a mall on top of the ocean...all ways in which your access to the water could be blocked.

Zoom out on the map, and you'll notice several large bodies of land. We're up to about 7, I believe, though one is not finished and won't be finished for some time, thanks to the pause in mainland sim sales. Carl Metropolitan of NCI has a fantastic map that he posts in here from time to time with updates. Do a forum search for map and you should find it.

(oh and hi Avion! thanks for the reference, lol )

Thanks, Cristalle and Lindal. Looks like my next step is to log in (after I get home from work), find out my continent name, then access the NCI maps.
-Rhiannon

A huge thank you and hugs to Cristalle! Cristalle was kind enough to help me figure out what continent I'm on. It turns out I'm on the southern continent and my land is "end of the world" and probably beach front forever. Ooooh! I'm so happy!

Cristalle is a sweetheart and my favorite landlady.

The map used to be fun, and it was really easy to explore around it, and easy to understand where you were in the SL Universe. It was what made me get excited about owning land originally. It went bonkers and stopped being useful sometime last year, and I think it was a big mistake for LL to let it go that way. People think I'm a nutcase I'm sure, but I think the lack of a functional map contributes to the devaluation of land. I started a thread about it a week or so ago, and there was some good discussion. One of the comments in there was that people now often don't even know there are continents. This is understandable since the map isn't very usable. It makes me sad, and I'll keep fighting to get the map functionality back, although I'm sure LL has bigger fish to fry.

Yes, if your land is on the southern continent, then I'm sure you will never see that seacoast void turned into a sim. That continent was built to a plan, and that plan was completed way before I joined. Enjoy your underwater castle for as long as you like!

--Avion

You're welcome, Rhiannon. And hugs to Avion!

WRT people not knowing there are continents, I would attribute that to the explosion of the estate land market. Very few estates are large enough to be considered their own continent, much less the size of the Linden mainland continents. Many people are on small estates consisting of one or several islands. 80% of the landmass consists of private islands. They're just not contiguous.

I enjoy mainland but I too tire of seeing my view get crapped up by people who own the water in front of me. My next purchase will be an estate.

Generally speaking, if your Mainland parcel already has a "finished" coastline, where the edge is below water level and can't be raised above it, you ought to be relatively safe against coastline changes. It's the sims that have a sharp, square edge of dry land along the whole sim edge that are most in danger of the Lindens coming in and adding coatal edges later.

But anything can change in SL, and probably will.

Private Estates can change on a whim, so the only real stability you can expect there is if you are renting/buyig from an established landlord. And even then, people come and go, and sims get sold to people with different ideas of how the sim should look.

Speaking of Linden protected waterfront, does anyone have an idea of what that type of land is going for these days? I found a nice little parcel last night, but it seems pricey at L$24 per sq m.

I'm getting rid of some smaller parcels and changing to bigger. I sold two 1500-ish parcels at 25/m in the past week.
However these had Linden water sims on two boundaries, so they were a bit rare and desirable. So some people are still buying premium.
Not so long ago, that sort of parcel had an asking price of 30 to 40.

Then I bought a 4000-ish parcel that had paved road on one boundary and Linden water on another. That cost 15/m. It also overlooks a Linden suspension bridge, and the neighbours are low density and tasteful.
Maybe it was cheaper because it was a steep hill, and many people can't see how to build on such land.