Remember, you saw it here first

Well. I thought I'd just pop over to the Eastern Pool Table Continent and see if anything was happening...

And, behold, Anshe™'s vision of the future of SL!

30 sims worth of flat sand and drainage ditches... liberally carpeted with palms and cabbages...

Which only gos to show that you can't possibly underestimate the taste of the bulk of SL residents.

Anyone want the remaining 40 sims - next to this?

I think you're jumping to conclusions.

The way I see it (and if you actually look into it, you will too I bet) anshe has set up the islands that people can drop in an configure to their particular preference.

The deep water there are just channels. It looks square now, but in 3 months time, the islands can be shaped in many different ways because it's terraformed close to the water.

And no, before you go off, I am not affiliated with anshecorp in away, I just believe it's necessary to correct mistakes.

Let's have some variety...... Himalayan mountains, Andean cloud forests, Appalachian foothills, Russian Steppes, Chinese RiverValleys, the Grand Canyon, Chryse Planitia, Valles Marineris, Hellas Planitia, Terra Meridiani, Titan, Io, Europa, Tycho, Mare Tranquillitatis, Copernicus, Venus, Trantor, Skaro, Qo'noS, Vulcan, Romulus, Cardassia, Ferenginar, Bajor, anything......

7 days is plenty of time to make a grayscale .bmp file and ship it off to the Lindens. I can make stunning landscapes using the same technique in Terragen in under an hour. Add in a script to plant trees randomly, and et voila, we have a Nice Place (tm).

This looks like a newb farm.

But that doesn't surprise me; I knew she wouldn't use the 20% linden-ownership to her advantage. Nope, gotta maximize profit by the bucketload.

Feh.

What a waste of the map.

Oh dear. Just been to look for myself, they *are* dowdish...

I think it's fair to say that part of the problem lies with LL, one week is not long enough to plan and terraform a whole bunch of sims. Yeah, sure you'd have an idea what you were going to do beforehand but why invest much time and effort if you can't be sure you'll win? (And not even Anshecorp can be 100% sure they'll always win an auction).

I'm with Alazarin, let's have some variety. But I think that means we'll have to buy up a block of 5 or 10 sims ourselves and terraform them accordingly. Want to come in halves on creating Vulcan? (Only half-joking)

I see a few things at work here, presuming the sims are actually done.

First off... people really don't like building on slopes. Perhaps this kind of terrain is what most residents actually want?

Secondly... perhaps this is what that first SL city really was meant to be... a high density grid of structures but with waterways instead of pavement. A virtual Bangkok? Such a city might be really, really fun (I'm hoping they build tall - if the residents do, I'd actually explore that!)

Last point: if this is how it will be - the rest of us can design our sims in counterpoint to this, and capture other segments of the market.

Yes, well said. It's just 30 sims out of 1500+ There was a demand, they've filled it, now we can move onto the next thing.

And is anyone really surprised? It appers entry is barred during construction. So there is hope that this vast wasteland will indeed have some coherent plan.

Hope springs eternal ... and all that

A couple of days ago I was there and Anshe's property didn't look ANYTHING like that... but nearby was a very interesting Hot Wheels-like track:

Case, you have not been playing long enough to understand Anshes "corp"
She will flatten the sim divided the land that will reflect tier levels. It is then up to the resident to decide how the "island" will take shape.

Maybe you should take a look at her other sims. Anshe does all the terraforming her self. She is talented. Fly over to Dreamland .. the japanese region...

Some friends of mine built that to resemble a game called San Francisco Rush (not 100% sure on the name.) Most of our cars wouldn't work right on the upside down portions of the track, but other than that, it was fun.

Wow that's ugly. I really hope the tenants can terraform that to be more pleasing. I thought Anshe had better terraformers than this on staff.

-Ghoti

Did anybody see for sale signs? I didnt. I love how people make assumptions with little or no info but then again the word is assume, Me I'll wait to see what's up when it goes up for sale

Well, let's see. Trees/shrubs are planted on precisely cut islands. Unless they're going to manually replant every tree/mass delete them, they can't raise/lower the land much. this is how it's going to look.

It's a land developer's dream, and a municipality's nightmare. And residents are caught in between.

LF

I recall a land dealer saying that while all the various terrains LL develops look good to begin with but what people ending up wanting is flat, sandy waterfront. This seems to fit that decription pretty well.

That's because people are impatient and would rather bulldoze a hill than try to work with it.

would people be happier living on a mountain, or in a sea of canal-jutted plains?

Just curious...how much time do you think makes sense for someone to terraform? It *is* possible to terraform a large region with a .raw file, or it can be done sim by sim while the limits are set to +/- 100m.

The comment came about in a discussion about terrain in the southeast section which is steep and has deep waters. I find it appealing but it certainly is simpler to work with a flat piece of land and patience is required. I guess my point is that I wouldn't be surprised if a land dealer went with what they knew from experience to be what people actually buy rather than a more creative, aesthetic development.

Early on in Dreamland, Anshe developed a very lovely estate; I think it was german themed with hills and streams. I believe she even commissioned a castle type build for it. But, in spite of the positive reviews, it simply did not rent. She had to tear it down and start anew, to give people the flat, sandy waterfront lots they wanted.

The comment came about in a discussion about terrain in the southeast section which is steep and has deep waters. I find it appealing but it certainly is simpler to work with a flat piece of land and patience is required. I guess my point is that I wouldn't be surprised if a land dealer went with what they knew from experience to be what people actually buy rather than a more creative, aesthetic development.

Early on in Dreamland, Anshe developed a very lovely estate; I think it was german themed with hills and streams. I believe she even commissioned a castle type build for it. But, in spite of the positive reviews, it simply did not rent. She had to tear it down and start anew, to give people the flat, sandy waterfront lots they wanted.

yeah lindenlab probably knows this too, but didn't want to be the bad guy with no taste so gave anshe the honor!

lucky her

To make something decent, I'd think half a day each for each sim, both to terraform without using a .raw file and to do the land subdivision would suffice. Certain land barons would end up with flat islands with monsoon drains anyway, so allocating more time might not make a difference.

What is more disturbing I think is that this is being done on the mainland in a large scale with absolutely no due consideration of the surroundings. Its simply tacked onto a sharp edge of the mainland and free hand is given to the highest bidder to molest it in whichever way they like within an extremely limited period of time. It wouldn't irk most people that much if they were private islands. But the mainland, I think represents what Linden Lab is and is reputed to do. Doing this just brings the quality a bit lower than most would expect.

Ya know if people wanted flat, why not look to some flat regions of the world for inspiration? Just because people like flat land, doesn’t mean everyone has to have a fugly island with small canals separating them. If I had the tens of thousands of dollars to buy and build my own mainland, I'd work with what is already there. Look to the Middle USA, totally flat, yet not that ugly. Australia outback, or the planes of Africa, the possibilities are endless. Course, you could easily create hilly land, beach barrier island chains, or even mountains with land easy to work with. Then again, these last comments would take some thought, which is more then many wish to do.

Now this is not to bash any person or company, but I hope those pictures above are not the final product of what is to become the new permanent continent.

- Sam

For all you people who "hope this isn't the final product" go look at the final product. Go look at Dreamland. This is obviously a work in progress, notice that the ubiquitous Anshe Corp for sale signs are missing? Here are a few pics from Dreamland. This is what the final product already looks like.

So let's not jump the gun here, there will be plenty of time to bash Anshe after she puts these sims on sale. Until then, go sit a spell in Central Park, the calm will do you good.