Just curious: why is "flat land" a selling point?

Raised land, On the Mainland has a Framework it's Built on, you can only raise, or Lower the land so far when terraforming, and it severely limits your options for terraforming, and building. It can be a worth while challenge to the true SL Architect, But many people simply find it an inconvenience.

Islands are Much more flexable, even if it's built up into a Mountain range, it can be Flattened, BUT If you are renting ot leasing a parcel on a privately owned island, The land owner May not want major Changes to his landscape, and again your Options are limited. Flat land is simply the Most Flexable for Building.

I have to say though i REALLY dispair when i see an entire Island Sim Left Flat after a Major Construction project. These "Checkerboard" Sims I find to be VERY Boring no matter what the owner has built on them. I like a More natural Flow to the land, and i like to see Sim builders designing in harmony with the landscape.

Angel.

He he, like these?

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/t/thiebaud/thiebaud_24th.jpg
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/t/thiebaud/thiebaud_hill.jpg

Paintings by Wayne Thiebaud
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/T/thiebaud.html



I agree, most of these as ugly, if not more so, then then the worst of the mainland that I so often see people complain about.

Heart Garden Center has them.

Char

Because it's easier for building on
It uses less prims to build a dwelling.
I want people to walk into my shop, not climb into it.
And the grass is easier to mow.
I never buy lumpy land land.
Whenever I buy land, the first thing I do is get it as flat as possible. I like it that way!
(I like mountains too, but I don't want to build on them!)
Thankyou.

Well being novice builders they probably want something they can drop a prefab straight on and start living in, working towards terraforming later. And unless you like sloping floors in your rooms, then you need to use more prims to get the same floorspace, making stilts and packing walls etc and on a smaller lot prims are scarce,

I'm suddenly reminded of a custom build I did for a friend, specially designed to fit a sloping river frontage. Then the client lost that parcel (long story), and now that build is at 700m over a different parcel. So, sometimes even the most sophisticated custom builds may need "pre-fab" portability. But the sky can accommodate any topography. (I know: some purists claim that sky builds need to relate to the sky, and look somehow suspended. But the best ones I've seen don't even try for that, so I guess I lost my purity somewhere along the way.)

There's a lot to be said in favor of sky builds in general, including the ability to house a quick temporary "flat land" build while the sloping parcel below gets the custom build it deserves.

I have seen complaints on the boards about how people hate the noise of walking up/down steps. So, I flattened the land I bought for my shop, both to make my customers happy and to save prims on building. Why is that a crime?

i like the challenge of building on a non-flat parcel. my first plot was on a mountainside in the atoll continent, so i made two big concrete arms coming out of the side of the mountain to suspend my landing platform. i find it easier to be creative when you have constraints like that.

If you have a lot more than 512 square meters, sure.... but if all you have is 512, stilts are a waste of prims.

Oh... well, there's a pretty easy script solution to that. It would go something like:

default { state_entry() { llCollisionSound("", 1.0); } }

in the stair prims. Because it's setting a persistent property of the prim, once it's been in the prim, it can be removed (or the Running box in the script unchecked) to save a miniscule amount of lag. Oh, and if you change the 1.0 to 0.0, the little spark-like sprites that appear when you bump into a step will also go away.

I don't think anyone thinks flattening is a crime, Serenarra, especially if it fits your build. I was wondering about the land-flippers who bulldoze and then set for sale. I think it looks like hell, and I have to fix it when I take ownership. So to me, it's not a selling point. I just wanted to know if I was crazy, or missing something obvious. A lot of good answers are in here on both sides of the issue! Thanks everybody.

I think we all have our prim priorities. I respectfully but wholeheartedly disagree with all of you that think 4 prims is too much to pay for stilts, even if you only have 117 total. Take down your ugly curtains and use those prims, I say. (I'm only kidding you all, of course).

That never worked for me, taking the script out (or oddly enough, unchecking "Running" always just enabled the collision sound again.