Wholesale Land Sales Test

I think its been a very long time since any 'normal' player bought land at auction. IMO, the barons long ago forced out the average player.

I don't care to look up stats (if anyone wants to prove me wrong go ahead and show the numbers), but I'd bet 75-90% of all auctions are to a small group of people who then split up the land for resale (landbarons). This added step simple means they get the chance to shape the terrain to their liking.

-Ghoti

When I first started reading that post, I thought it was a great idea that I would take advantage of, so long as I hit the lottery this weekend. But now I'm thinking even if I WERE stinking filthy rich, I wouldn't even consider buying up that much 'mainland' withont a very clear goal in mind.

If we were talking 'estate' style sims, then I could totally see that. We'd (hopefully, in my opinion) see more island chains forming. Obviously I'm biased, but when I attached my sim to the Ginko chain, it was specifically because I wanted to have that infrastructure that makes the land more desirable. We have roads with working traffic lights, street signs, lamp posts that light up at night, and a 5-sim elevated tram and subway line. I wouldn't invest the kind of time to put in and maintain that sort of infrastructure if there was a chance in any given hot place that someone could sell a 16x16 plot to I.M.Peach, build the Giant Toilet Dreamhome, or plop down their latest ugly prefab.

So, either there's a giant master plan involved that someone is willing to give up estate controls for, or it's just a quicker way for landbarons to chop up parcels so people can get on with their shoulder-to-shoulder wall and sign building.

Woo.

The reality was that relatively few little guys utilized the land auction to buy small parcels when they were made available in that fashion. I can't explain it, I found my participation in 3 auctions to be advantageous, but I can see why LL switched to whole sim auctions.

you may be surprised...

ya, I think a few have actually hired employees at rl rates.

long ago when I was looking at smaller plots for auction there were 2 stumbling blocks I never got past. First off very few autions were in L$ which is what I needed and Second I found the entire process as it was a year ago or more totally confusing.

Just my case but maybe that is why there was so little action on those

I'm very glad to hear that there is a working business model sufficient to support hiring employees at RL rates. It would be great to know some specifics.

heh, I wouldn't know Frank. I'd never pull it off. Anshe I believe has and in simplest terms I believe it's because of the size of the investment she has made.

And just the other day I was wondering if LL was ever going to offer mainland sims somewhere other than the northern continent...

If I didn't have to be fiscally responsible I'd get a 10 or 20 sim block, build Olympus Mons (or Fist of God, or Chasm City, or ...) in the middle, keep the summit and put 90% of the land on the market. (And then go bankrupt paying tier since I'm too lazy to do what it'd take to move all that land.) And at least 5% would be infrastructure or protected un-natural wonders.

The new terraforming step and the chance to specify the protected land offers some cool opportunities. First thing I thought of was a city sim or three with a network of streets, sidewalks, elevated rail, etc. All that protected land could sweeten the prim allocation for the parcels, if we were allowed to play with that, nudge nudge... And I know there are folks interested in more city sim space.

I can't wait to see what people do with this. Sucks that I can't afford to take that project on, though
Anybody considering a joint venture? Just thinking out loud...

I think that would be a very cool idea, Fist of God(I'd call it Castle Mount, though).

I think also selling the top would be interesting, especially if LL continues to increase the draw distance.

How well would that terraform? There might be an issue of cloud cover as well, though that could add to the effect..

I think that would be a very cool idea, Fist of God (I'd call it Castle Mount, though).

I think also selling the top would be interesting, especially if LL continues to increase the draw distance.

How well would that terraform? There might be an issue of cloud cover as well, though that could add to the effect..

I think that would be a very cool idea, Fist of God (I'd call it Castle Mount, though).

I think also selling the top would be interesting, especially if LL continues to increase the draw distance.

How well would that terraform? There might be an issue of cloud cover as well, though that could add to the effect..

I would also like to see the sim blocks auctioned off as 9,16,25 .. Though, there may be reasons why this isn't feasible.

One week for terraforming ten sims is inadequate. The mesh deformation tool is a bit coarse for sculpting dramatic terraforming appropriate for the usual scale of infrastructure in SL. A rush job is a bad idea. It's too easy for the terraformer to unintentionally create artifacts like unduely stretched textures and that 3D diagonal jagginess we all hate. Heck I've even seen that one in Guild Wars terrain.

Terraforming and building infrastructure are related processes. Ideally they should be done during the same time frame in SL on a workspace PI. The artisan has to be able to fly his avatar around the construct as it is iteratively refined, checking the three dimensional form from various directions and distances. More time is required to integrate infrastructure and terrain at smaller scales to get finished edges. I'll include an image of my new lot in Miramare to illustrate this.

This is the linden terrain with linden walkways. Miramare is no-terraform, so we have to prim mask the rough edges like these in order to achieve the urban look appropriate to a city cim.

Heh, the first draft of my post referenced Silverberg's Castle Mount, but I thought of Alastair Reynold's Chasm City and thought the inverse would be cool too.

/me scratches the pointy top of his head... Well, this is only a test (ahem), maybe if it proves out they'll queue up many cluster sizes so you can pick the one you want and start the auction. I'd also be very surprised if you couldn't contact them and have exactly the size you want teed up...

I thought that myself, at first blush, but I guess it all depends on what they want to do with it. A typical slice and dice for resale could be done pretty fast by an experienced outfit -- especially if they've got an estate or three to work up the RAW files they want to use.

On the other hand, a group trying to create a truly unique environment would be very hard pressed, depending on what they were trying to do. I would expect that a group willing to forgo the tier amnesty would find the Lindens willing to be flexible on the lock-down date.

I still think this'll be really interesting. Just hope that when we get to check out one of these new mega-islands, they aren't all uniformly grey with white gridwork...

And I'm still tickled by the idea of buying a cluster and creating vanity real estate. I mean, my avatar might be long since relegated to the bit bucket, but Mount Zippity could live on forever!! Or at least until the asset server finally melts down...

It occured to me as I was thinking more about Mount Zippity (I would live there!) that this is a great signal from Linden Lab about their focus to empower their customers to make these things happen rather than to be the source themselves.

Some projects, such as Lindex and Blumfield, have left us content creators concerned - but developments such as this go a long ways to alleviating those concerns.

These new sims are not going to be developed with good landscaping in mind; rather, it's going to be a crowded block of 2048, 4096, 1024, and 512 plots, all butted up against one another.

What's more, there won't be any roadways or other protected greenspace, except perhaps as a token gesture in order to raise land values.

Sorry I'm cynical, but giving land devleopers 100% control over what the rest of us get to live on is a recipe for disaster.

Depends. People will pay for quality, and I imagine some land barons will be content to be the Wal*Mart of virtual estate in SL, and others would prefer to up the profit margin by crafting beautiful terrain and charging more for it.

I suspect at a minimum we will see massive archipelagos, similar to what Hiro Queso, Anshe Chung, and Alliez have created on their rental islands - everyone wants their own island. A lot of people have been talking about theworld.ae lately, so do not be surprised to see someone tackle this.

Another idea along those lines might be a series of Venice sims.

City Sims would be challenging due to prim contraints, not to mention the work involved. Primming up 10 or 20 sims just to have someone move in with Impeach Bush signs would be .. unfortunate.

Ideally, someone might try to be a bit more innovative. I really like the idea of a 9 sim mountain, for example, though this format would be more risky.

Other ideas? Maybe borrowing land maps from a popular favorite fantasy / sci-fi novel? I would not mind owning the Shire.

I suspect at a minimum we will see massive archipelagos, similar to what Hiro Queso, Anshe Chung, and Alliez have created on their rental islands - everyone wants their own island. A lot of people have been talking about theworld.ae lately, so do not be surprised to see someone tackle this.

Another idea along those lines might be a series of Venice sims.

City Sims would be challenging due to prim contraints, not to mention the work involved. Primming up 10 or 20 sims just to have someone move in with Impeach Bush signs would be .. unfortunate.

Ideally, someone might try to be a bit more innovative. I really like the idea of a 9 sim mountain, for example, though this format would be more risky.

Other ideas? Maybe borrowing land maps from a popular favorite fantasy / sci-fi novel? I would not mind owning the Shire. Or land textured to look like black space? A series of sims with no land? Lots of interesting ideas.