Private Sims

Im hoping to be back online more often real soon and trying decide best way to meet my needs. I got some projects planed that will require significant space and prim allocation. Im trying to decide if getting my own sim or knocking on Anshe's door is the best route.

I remember lot technical complaints about private sims scattered here and there, was wondering if someone could give me a consolidated list of the pros and cons of having one. I know one upside is your sim = your rules (being supreme queen of my own sim sounds good...) but was wondering what other things, like do you have lot more control over terraforming and such.

I dont have a pile cheese to go with the normal whine, but would like to hear the real downside issues may have to deal with. Just to help me decide which option is best for me.

Ferran and I have owned Chaos for about 3 months now. We have been fortunate in that we really haven't had any downsides. We have been reset to older servers every once in awhile, but since we control the contents of the sim, performance stayed decent even when that happened.

We previously owned 45K of Riiki and paid the same amount as we do now for 64K. I never realized how much the neighboring sims can affect your performance, so definately do not hook up to another private sim.

Estate tool.. custom textures, terraforming, being able to hide your island from people with behavior problems.. it's all very good.

I would go knocking on Anshe's door if I were you or look for ads for separate islands on the grid, there are some, or other types of land, I've seen some nice places lately on old sims as well as new. I think it's better to encourage the in-world land market among players than to facilitate dependency on the Lindens. I have seen both difficult private sims with lag and no attention from customer service and excellent private sims with no lag and feting from the Lindens. So you have to ask some more.

I'm absolutely thrilled with my island - Asim Zahra. I've had it since last August. It's steadily remained up and to the best of my knowledge has never been reassigned to a slower server. I can set my own terraform and water height limits, for me far beyond any range I'd be likely to ever use. I can retexture the sim anytime I wish, and I have a decent range of access controls.

15K prims to play with is certainly nice, and I am in ultimate control of the level of lag I care to tolerate. I'm not in SL to run a business or work, so the sim remains largely undeveloped and essentially lag free. I host events for fun, and for friends, at least for now.

The Lindens are talking about potentially allowing estate owners to run more than 1 sim on their server, but with the same 15K prim allowance, which I am hoping for. I don't need the prims as much as I'd love to have the space, and maybe even a water sim for fun.

All in all, the experience has been great.

We have only had ours for about six weeks. I would have to think really hard to come up with anything negative regarding private sims. There are so many good things. I love being able to download my own ground textures. No lag. Complete control of your environment. No "view" of your neighbors builds. Every one that comes to your sim wants to talk to you about it.

It is a lot of money, but it is a much better value for your money.

Definately try for a "used" sim first. We bought ours through Anshe and got good value on a second hand sim.

Tere, I think it really depends what you want and what your budget is.

PRIVATE SIMS
+ Total control
+ 15000 prims
+ No neighbours and very private
+ Daytime 24/7 if you want, the nights can be turned off
+ Fully terraformable
- 980$ upfront investment
- 195$ per month fees and no way to scale down
- Isolated and lonely environment

ISLAND ON MAINLAND
+ Integrated with mainland
+ Any size available
+ Prims can often be upgraded by buying more land in sim
+ Cost can always be downgraded by selling off part of the land again and keeping what you need
+ Half sims size for 125$ or quarter sim size for 75$ is much cheaper than 195$ if you do not need whole sim
- High per sqm up front cost, at least for nice mature islands. Normal flat PG snow land is available very cheap though.
- No control about neighbourhood. Somebody can build mall and lag you to death.
- Most sims are not fully terraformable
- No custom textures

CHUNG-ZONED SIM
+ Most advantages of private island sims
+ Smaller sizes like half sim or quarter sim available
+ Connected to a small mostly lag free continent managed by Blue and Anshe
+ Brand new server
+ Zoning rules prevent neighbours from turning sim into a lag/crap fest
- Zoning rules prevent you from turning sim into a lag/crap fest
+/- You have tier subscription with ANSHECHUNG.COM instead with Linden Lab
+ Fully terraformable terrain
+/- Custom ground textures, but have to agree with other residents in sim about textures
- For some land control functions like changing ground texture you need my assistance

Thanks Anshe for your detailed listing of the features of each option and the rest of you for your feedback. I have been contemplating a private sim purchase as well and this thread has been very helpful.

IMHO Private islands are the way to go. The amount of lag that neighboring sims can cause can make owning a mainland sim a nightmare. Even if you do everything "right" in your sim, a laggy club/casino/mall in an adjacent sim will send your FPS into the shitter.

For those of you who wish to "test drive" private sim ownership, I am currently renting 1/4 private sims for $75 per month. You do not have to pay LL tier fees or make any upfront land purchase .