Using Oceans To Create A Great Frontier

There are no truly great seas or oceans in SL. Wouldn't it be neat for Lindenlabs to dedicate some servers to create a never-to-be-developed ocean? One server per sim would be too expensive, but if it's known in advance that these sims will never be developed, will remain open ocean and a few uninhabitated atolls forever, then a single server could be used to create say, a block of nine of these ocean-wilderness sims. A few or even a single great ocean could add much to the sense of SL being a vast alternate world.

Sailing is an underutilised gem in SL.

I too would like to see more places to sail.
I have found exploring by boat in SL is far more pleasant and rewarding than say in a car.

At the very least, I think it would be cool to have a one-sim water buffer around the entire grid so you could circumnavigate in a boat if you wanted.

Oh yeah that sounds lovely and theoretically not that expensive to do. How many sims with no builds on them could fit on one server? A few Id suggest.

But I think that problem with the idea may be that LL give you no guarantee on the continent edges that you are going to have water so having water sims there may setup false expectations that get them in trouble when they build you in with another sim.

But doing a wind powered lap sounds nice...

I could be wrong, but I think hes referring to actual waters with some kind of depth to them, vs the rather shallow waters which are all we currently have.

Obviously, there's nothing deep like oceans in SL, but some places are deeper than others. The waters off the coast of Crooked are about 70m deep. The water off the coast of Star and Torch are also deep by SL standards. All three of these are on large multi-sim Linden seas, so I presume the water depth is uniformly deep across those water sims.

To me, they feel deep. It takes a couple of seconds to fly from the bottom to the surface.

Ooh.... If there were enough water to circumnavigate, I could become a REAL PIRATE!!!

I mean, I'm already a Dread Pirate, but we don't really have a ship...

I have recently discovered the joys of SL sailing, but even before this I was disappointed by the lack of open water. So I too would like to see some vast ocean regions!

I would also like to see more navigable inland waterways connecting the mainland. Today I tried to sail from Cochran to Lusk, but was blocked by the dams at Sugarloaf and Sutherland and the frozen river at Zermatt Was forced to portage in order to complete the trip. There is no way to trans-navigate the mainland!

And perhaps LL could add some sanity to the wind system to make sailing under natural wind a little easier?

This got me inspired to think: what about an ARCHIPELAGO?

One problem with all the private islands to the west is that, whelp, you can't swim from the mainland to any of them. This breaks a feel of continuity, since this is not an option elsewhere, either. I'd like to see an extent of what we already have, small island chains drifting, and o, more floatsam and jetsam. Maybe even kelp swooshing by.

Here, I'm thinking, a really epic span of islands, some of them with palm trees which are Protected Linden Land, others which could be bought up on auction. Speaking of, I wonder if there's room for a "mainland+private island" hybrid that allows some of the control and flexibility of a private island, like changing terrain textures, but one that you could swim to. Which is really what I'm getting at.

Hazel, have you talked to Cid Jacobs about the wind? He has some great ideas.

To be sure, SL has not maxed its geography potential. Oceans, steppes, wild places of all kinds, many of the places in RL that truly inspire are not to be found in SL, at least not in quantity to rival the many land parcel sims that are proto-suburban in flatness and blandness.

Challenging geography is more challenging to build upon. But why diminish geography because of the perceived need for private land that's flat and boring? Public commons: archipelagoes, oceans to circumnavigate, mountain ranges -- more contiguous space! Authentic and accessible! Parts of SL's snow-lands are inspired: the peaks of Kanin, for example, but these are exceptions compared to much of the new development (and poor Kanin's chair-lift has been broken forever!).

Having to put up with annoyances like Impeach Bush concurrently makes one wonder about the worthiness of carrying monthly land tier sometimes, since we're basically subsidizing a lack of leadership on geography. No wonder the architecture panel at last fall's SL convention poo-pooed the mundane and vernacular building of Second Life -- it's tied to land and virtual environments that are, by design, mundane and vernacular. Will SL build another Tethys? Or more terraform sims that aren't private islands?

It would be good business for LL, too, since demand for natural space is inevitable. Everyone gets tired of the 'burbs at some point and hankers to drive their SUVs into the wild places. But where will they go in Second Life?

There are 10-12 sims of open water around the island of Baffin, which is fully sailable. There are some luxury homes built on the waterfront, but the islands in the center are open land, possibly suitable for camping and rallying of pirate bands. Roving fleets of pirates lobbing watermelon rounds at each as wenches danced hulas on the fantail would be fun.

Now all we need is a proper armed sailing sloop to add to the brilliant Tako fleet.

The water sims throughout the mainland had been void sims up until a few months ago and could not be navigated. Portage is situated at the intersection of two large lakes with deep waters to 80m.

Excellent. I'd love to see a huge ocean between two large continents. Maybe throw an underwater region or two in the middle.