Tier question?

An apology first as I may be missing the obvious.
How do the tier charges escalate when your holding (Mainland) goes over a full sim ?
Does it double regardless of the extra amount or does it scale up as before?

I believe it doubles..but I can't recall now =/

I believe it goes up in Half Tier increments of $97.50US

That's what I've heard, too.

Correct. Once you own a sim's worth of mainland, you'll be paying $97.50 more whether you buy 512m or 32768m extra.

They're upto something with tier. They're looking to "simplify" it. Not sure what that means yet but we'll await the announcement.

Personally I think it's silly that you have to go up another half a sim worth if you own a whole sim, this must surely put people off buying more land. Indeed this applies throughout the tier pricing structure.

Uh oh - this could be bad. I just took all of my accounts up to premium because it actually allowed me to reduce the tier charges on my main account and actually save money in the end based upon membership cost, stipend received, and tier available to donate. Now, with my luck, they will come up with some 'simplified' scheme that will jack my costs higher than they would have been with where my accounts stood two weeks ago.

How much land do you need to own for that to work? I assume more than a sim as when I add up I thought 2 premiums costs me more per month then one to give me the same land credits. I only own half a sim though.

I'd assume more than one sim, but less than one and a half. That way, one account would be charged for a full sim, the other(s) would pay for the fractional bits, rather than incurring the extra half-sim tier for less than half a sim of land.

The same would go for more than 'n' sims, but less than 'n and a half'.

It works sometimes on much smaller amounts of land too. I have 1120m, which I pay for with 2 premium accounts + 10% group bonus.

One account...
Premium fee $72 (paid yearly)
+ ($5 tier * 12)
+ 17.5% VAT
= $155

Two accounts...
Premium fees ($72 * 2)
+ 17.5% VAT
= $170

BUT the extra premium account nets me L$400 * 52, far more than I could buy for the $15 difference.

Thx Kelli, now why didn't I think of that! (reminds me to think lateraly). Mind you in view of the comments about 'Simplifying' I guess I'll wait and see for now!!

I'm at 1/2 sim of tier. US$125/month

A single square metre over that and I'd suddenly jump into the full tier level of US$195/month.

That's an extra US$70/month.
An obvious move would be to have a group member or alt start taking on extra tier for the group at the lower tier levels.
A less obvious move, but a far more cost-effective move is to rent tier.

For me, the break-even point to switch from renting tier into paying tier to LL is at the 16,384 metre level.

The other neat thing about renting tier is that it allows you to hold land for a short while without being slapped with the maximum level you got to during the billing month.

You own a sim of tier:
You buy an additional 512metres and sell it or another 512 within a week - so you get slapped with an extra 1/2 sim of tier for the entire month
Rent 512 tier for a week - you pay 512m tier rental for a week.


For a group that has complete financial trust between the owners, it is very cost effective to have one owner take on all of the tier. It's cheaper per metre as the tier level rises.

Actually, not as much as it seems. It really more depends on how much land you have compared to the tier level that dumps you in. With the group 10% bonus, I only needed tier of 5819 to cover my 6400 of land. Take out my initial 512 and that still left 5307, which was in the 8192 tier group.

So initially, my costs were:
72/yr premium fee plus 480/yr tier (40/mth), totals 552/yr
subtract out 58.86/yr in the $US value of the weekly stipend
(L$300/wk times 52 weeks at a value of L$265 per US$)
results in a net cost of $493.14/yr

I now have 4 accounts at premium and if all 4 donate their 512, then my required 5307 drops to 3771, which reduces me to the 4096 tier level. So then the new costs are:
72/yr premium times 4 accts is 288/yr plus 300/yr tier (25/mth), totals 588/yr
subtract out 235.44/yr in the $US value of the stipend
(L$300/wk times 52 weeks time 4 accts, at L$265 per US$)
results in a net cost of $352.56

Saving me $140.58 per year.

Granted, that will vary slightly as the exchange rate varies, but it is pretty close.

So basically this just indicates that whoever worked out tier costing didn't have a clue or maybe that's unfair?

Or maybe that premium accounts aren't as bad as people often make them out to be?

But one shouldn't really have to make numerous alts just to gain a saving, the best price for 1 avatar should always be the best option. I know this is a bad example, but it seems to me it's like a telephone company saying if you own two phones it's cheaper to make calls!

I think they had a clue alright

The tier jumps are designed to encourage us to buy more land.
The inducements are:
1) Gosh. I'm paying for the tier, so I might as well use it.
2) It's more money per month but the cost per meter is lower.


As an aside:
If tier was completely flat rate and simply charged per metre it could have a nasty effect on the rental market.
Landlords at high tier levels take advantage of the lower tier/metre to keep rents lower.


LL could manipulate tier to try and force landlords to charge higher rents in order to remain viable.
They might gamble that this would induce people to go premium and buy (now cheaper?) land rather than pay higher rent.