The New Continent with Free Houses for Premiums

Here's today's blog post on it:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/land/blog/2009/12/15/linden-homes-are-open-for-viewing-on-nascera

I just browsed around and some of it is pretty nice. I could easily see this nabbing the folks that just want a tiny place to set home to, change clothes, open boxes, etc. I think I might actually take one when they are available.

Has anyone else checked it out yet? Comments?

I don't think guys have any business using Nascera.

Another new continent? Why not utilize all that Governor Linden land and parcels abandoned by folks? We've got a surfeit of land as it is...

Quote from Blondin Linden:

No kidding, huh? It's almost like they are purposefully working against us.

They need to turn off resale and terraforming.

Presumably so that people can feel to be housed in a nice area, without any peculiar builds around. I wonder how LL will treat megaprims surrounding a parcel there.

I don't see all the unused land being a problem unless it has garbage on it. I know that SL feels empty in most mainland places, but if it weren't, we'd be moaning about the lag in them.

True, true, and I understand about the terraforming/resale thing as well. But if you hope around the mainland continents, there are plenty of parcels owned by Governor Linden that have trash all over them - why not clean those up and give those away? They could still do the unmoveable house thing and the no resale thing; I'm sure it's just a setting in a server somewhere.

The land cannot be sold, you cannot terraform at all, and the house does not count towards the 117 prim limit.

And a few of the houses are not bad for being low prim and sitting in the space of a 512.

These sims also are mutli-sim themed areas with lots of grass and tree areas between the themed areas.

I know I could look this up, but since you're chatting, what's the criteria besides being premium? Cannot own land already? Have to be a certain number of days/months/weeks young/old?

You simply have to be premium and have 512 of tier available.

Right now there appears to be 4 areas
1) a fantasy type area with giant mushrooms and trees and castle like houses and hobbit like houses.
2) a bunch of ugly A-frame houses with not much else around it
3) a bunch of rectangular houses, with some quad-plexes scattered in, and a bunch of tiny trees -- these houses give the LOOK of the most usable space
4) an asian themed area, with larger trees -- these give the most illusion of privacy

The A frames have over 50 houses in the sim. I wonder what the AV count allowance will be for each of these sims? If it is the usual 40, these could get maxed out pretty quickly.

What if this doesn't fly? Will these folks be evicted?

As I understand it there are a lot of restrictions on what can and can't be done with these places. However, for new residents that's probably a good thing.

The 'homes' have their own plot and are all separated by Linden owned space to help avoid neighbour build hassles.

As an introduction to in-world living I think it is a good move. A place to call home is important and something I know I missed on joining up. I did my fair share of changing appearance and clothes on rooftops or other deserted places but I really wanted someplace to call home.

I ended up purchasing a 512 at auction and starting in on building. I soon concluded my plans required more space and moved on. The whole buying and selling land early in my SL life was stressful and based on poor knowledge of how it all worked.

These places will provide a starting point for residents who most likely will outgrow the potential and will move on to private ownership but far better prepared than most residents now are.

Resident landlords are probably wailing that LL is once again encroaching on their business. However, I believe this scheme will introduce more new residents to in-world living and feed more, and better prepared, tenants into the greater residential market.

Time will tell.

Rime

I started in Elderglen area.. and I must say, the places are cute. LL's crafty-types seem to have actually put thought into the environment of the infohub and the homes.

The parcels are odd shapes, and don't expect a front yard of any sort. Looks like the parcels do support the 117 and it doesn't seem to count the houses... Probably just as well, since you can't do squat to them. It looks like they're going to be script controlled.

There is "public" spaces and neutral zones between many of the houses.

I wonder if LL is willing to make the houses free in the library, so when the new premium is ready to move on, they can take a piece of it with them?

That is a nice idea -- some of those hobbit type houses were really cute. But if they made it available in the library, wouldn't one or more enterprising folks set up tons of rental areas with them? That could work out well on a bunch of 1024 plots so that the person had some land outside the house/patio and more prims since once they leave the Linden Love area, the house counts towards prims.

Some smart soul will probably market it as an intermediate land owning experience, too. I wonder how they managed to keep the prims from counting on the parcel, because that would be a wonderful tool for landlords with prefab rental units!


A lot of the houses were cute, but nothing I'd want to live in for long myself.. But they gave me some ideas on what I could do for my own shop to make it more interesting and hopefully low prim.

Presumably they have the root prim on the Linden land at the side of each plot. The root prim can be physically seperate and invisible.

Hmm - never thought of that. I was editing and looking at things left and right and just figured they rigged the way the calcs are done there.

Doesn't look bad in the pix I've seen. It seems to have the most variety and looks most open.
These make Shermerville look good.
This looks like it might be OK, if crowded... which is probably authentic.

wailing? no...slightly peeved? yes kinda..rentals are hard work..to see an area I focus on being herded up is annoying ..we work hard for new people that come to us, to give them a good start in SL. We get many compliments from people who either move on to our larger homes or land...or another place..I have bills to pay..so yes..it feels like LL are taking some of my market.

I dunno, Faithless. Given that this is for new premium accounts, I don't see how this could honestly hurt your business too much. I honestly don't think that this will encourage a whole lot of the basic accounts to suddenly want to become premium accounts.

What I recommend is setting a section as an "intermediate" rental, since the Linden Homes will have NO tools available to them, beyond maybe banning/ejecting.

And yep, it's a very, very tiny prim that is invisible and on the "public" land that keeps the house from counting as prims on the parcel. Clever and possible only for say.. a mall setting.

Some of it's quite pretty. I like the buffer zones between the themes.

I can see now why they have just released some peculiar new names.I think they are expecting a bunch of hobbits some places are tiny but cute.
I like the A frames myself and the trees are better there,I wonder if the will make them available all over ,na doubt it.
I noticed they put little trunks on those revolting Zindra trees but they still look crap.
All an all I found it very similar to the competition ,like a cheap and nasty vid game.Not my cup of tea really.

This is exactly what they did. Its a micro prim just outside of the parcel.

I like the fantasy and Japanese themed sims more than the Tahoe. I have yet to visit the California styled sim.
I am impressed with what LL has done with the neighborhoods kudos to the design team.