Land terraforming advice needed

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying 1/4 sim of mainland, to build a tiki style beach & home area and a store / art gallery above it at a good height. I really only need 9000-1000m of my plot to be land and would like the rest as water so I can play with my little sail boat

A lot of the plots i've found are almost all land or all water and I was originally under the impression that I could just terraform the land to whatever layout i wanted but I recently read something that made me unsure what I could and couldn't do, and that I could only terraform land to +/- 4m. So to clarify, could someone please help with a couple of things....

I was thinking of buying an all water / ocean plot and then raising the land in the center of the plot to make an island, is this possible? and what land height restrictions would I have?

If I buy a mostly land plot can I lower the coastal part to increase the ammount of water on my plot?

I really don't want to buy the land and then find I can't terraform it how I want it so any advice on this is appreciated, I tried searching the forums for help on this but just got loads of land for sale posts

Thanks in advance, Lisa x

Unless the parcel you buy is at it's original "baked" state and the land is within 4 meters of the water surface you may run into trouble.

My best advice to guarantee an island would be to buy an all water parcel then use prims to create your island .. a single sculpted mega prim could be ideal.

If you bought a water plot on the mainland you could only raise the land 4m. For most pure water plots I've seen, that's not high enough to break the surface. A lot of land on the coast however can be raised or lowered above or below the water level. You should always assume the plots for sale are either raised or lowered to their max height -- so if you're interested in a particular plot ask the seller to demonstrate the land elevation range.

I've searched for similar plots myself and there are a lot out there actually. If you want to play in the water, try to go for land/waterland which is adjacent to an empty, pure ocean sim that doesn't appear as if its going to be sold. Of course one can never be sure, but the lindens seem to be leaving many pure water plots alone in Nautilus for boating.

Take your time, there are 40 sim auctions up at the moment and most of them are going to be carved into smaller parcels for sale. In addition, the creation of a whole new water continent has been announced. I have a feeling its gonna be a buyers market for a while so be picky and wait for the perfect plot.

Just had a look at a couple of the plots and the land is about 8m under water so I guess that's a non starter

Hadn't thought about building an island out of prims but thinking about it that might be a good idea, my only worry there would be making the coastline look natural, as for sculpted prims I wouldn't have a clue how to do that, but thanks for the suggestion anyway, lol

Gonna go have a play on a friends plot and see what a prim island would look like

Thanks for advice. i found a few lovely plots but sadly out of my price range, ones in my price range seem to be all water or very little water, I keep checking for new ones on the market though

Any idea when the new continent will arrive? I have a few weeks to find the right plot but I desperately need to expand my store it's like a game of sardines in there some days, lol

I don't really want to throw money away on renting a larger plot until I buy but I can hold out a few weeks so for now I'll keep looking, the prim island thing mentioned before is a definite possibility though.

Just checked the blog, looks like the new continent "Corsica" will start appearing within a couple of weeks so think i'll wait and see what happens there, sounds like it could be ideal once people start splitting and selling, just hope the prices are in my range

Thanks for the heads-up Plato x

"..doesn't appear as if it's going to be sold"...."seem to be leaving"....
I've seen lots of land like that.
I wouldn't buy it in a fit. I'm not the type of gambler that wants to lose that badly.

If the Governor Linden land/water was "Protected" then OK, but as far as I've seen in the past "Maintenance" means not sold *yet*.

Rather like "If you want the view, buy it" - If you want to use the water, buy it.
The OP is advised to buy water and make an island with prims.
Look at that from the point of view of neighbouring plots. Today's water view is tomorrow's megaprim and/or ad-farm - unless you own the view.

I guess I don't see it as a gamble unless you are being charged more for a supposedly "protected view". That is not always the case. I for one would love to buy enough land so that there would not be the possibility of ad farms or ugliness in my way but the cost of that plus the monthly tier would be a killer.

So, if the price is the same for a space next to an empty ocean sim (with at least the possibility that it could remain vacant) as opposed to an interior space that you know is going to be built upon, why not go for the former?

I have a nice plot myself next to a vacant sim. It very well may be put up for auction someday, but for the past 3 months its been empty. I've already enjoyed the boating and views with the understanding it could be lost.

First off, I'd reiterate the advice about asking the seller to demonstrate the terrafrom limits. If you're buying a lot of land, some might even let you play with the terraforming yourself before buying.

As for waiting for Corsica - the Lindens have dropped 40 sims on the auction block, all finishing in about a day and a half. Many of these sims are waterfront, so you might be able to pick up a bargain in the next few days.

You're more likely to find what you're after on estate land. Check and compare tier payments.

You can look up the terraform limits yourself. When you're standing on the land, click the 'Regions/Estates" link in the World menu. The terraform limits can be found, I believe, in the 'Terrain' tab.

Also, with some estate managers, it's possible to ask them to let you do some special terraforming to meet your needs, after which they will "rebake"it again and set your new terrain as the "default" state.

Lots of things are possible!

House on stilts maybe?

All water plot, use stilts long enough to raise the building out the water.

I know smeg all about building, it's just something that occured to me.

Technically...you don't even need the stilts. They don't actually support the building...only eat up prims. Of course...a few good support struts do look nice every once in a while

Thanks for your help everyone

Stephen - Yeah i saw those on the auction list, waiting to see what happens there, but Corsica does sound interesting, who knows just have to wait and see

Ciaran - Personally I wouldn't touch estates, I know too many people that have had bad experiences even with "trusted" sim owners, one poor guy I know lost over L$200K of land when the sim owner decided to evict him and resell the land for no apparent reason. I know most people have good experiences with estate land but it's not a risk i'm willing take. Plus of course mixing residential & commercial use on estate land is usually not allowed under the covenant, for piece of mind i'd much rather go for mainland.

Plato - Agree completely, there's always a risk of ad farms and the like popping up next door, and as much i'd love my own sim or two it's just way out of my price range for now. If the view really get's that bad though it can always be blocked. Shame I can't find a few like minded people looking for land to buy a complete sim between us

Oberon - Thanks for that, good to know

Strontium & Joseph - Nice idea guys but not really what I had in mind, thanks for the suggestion anyway, lol

Found out today though that the +/- 4m thing doesn't seem to apply to estate land for some reason, a friend has a small plot she bought to play with and she can raise / lower the land by over 30m using the terraforming tools.

Still waiting and keeping an eye on the market, but a clearer idea of what i'm looking for now, thanks again everyone for the advice

Checked my friends estate land using the method Oberon suggested and hers is set to +/- 100m, I also found another mainland plot with it set to +/- 20m so it appears that it can be changed.
Although it looks like this can only be done if you own the entire sim, not sure how that would work for a mainland sim that's been split up and sold though, i guess your stuck with whatever the original sim owner set it to? which I guess defaults as +/- 4m?

I can see the reasons for limiting terraforming, but this all seems far more complicated than it needs to be, lol

Still think my best bet is to find a plot that needs little or no terraforming though, decided against a prim island, just doesn't look natural enough for my liking

Too bad you have ruled out estates...I know a few owners like Sarah Nerd and Kandee Herrey. They might have the exact type of terraformable land you are looking for and you can safely do business with them with no worries.

Otherwise, start scouting out the auctioned sims that just closed. The ones that were bought for resale will start hitting the market tonight. You may also want to post a land wanted thread to the land sales forum describing what you are looking for. Be advised that what you are looking for is the most sought-after type of mainland so you may end up having to pay a premium for it. Good luck!