Any tips for buying an island?

hello fellow residents, my university is about to buy a sim for my PhD and I wanted to make sure we do it right.

Friends have said that you should choose a spot on the grid which is as far away from the main land and other sims or islands as possible. They thought that that helps to reduce lag. Is that right and does anyone else have any tips or look outs?
Cheers
Dex

I dont think having a sim faraway from other sim will reduce lag problems, as sims are on separate servers, however having a sim far away from the mainland might reduce the occourances of the random griefer

It won't have anything to do with lag since you won't have any other islands located right next to you (unless you add more.) The only lag on your island will be what you create from your own builds. Unlike on the mainland, your visitors only have to download information from your sim, not other sims within view range - as there aren't any....

Yes, that all makes sense. Thanks also to Isablan!

Cheers
Dex

Well, I don't know on the exact reason why you're getting a sim, but I believe LL offer an educational discount in some cases, it may be worth investigating that if you haven't already.

I don't know how your University handles expenses, but if you have to pay for it yourself, and then expense it later, make sure you call your credit card company first to alert them to a big one-time charge from an online service. My card company told me that they automatically deny big purchases from games/online services unless they get a heads-up first.

If it's only one sim, so long as it doesn't join others you will be fine.

Go easy on the total number of textures. Prims aren't that bad, but too many textures can really kill a sim.

Work ahead. A lot. The grid is gonna act up when you least want it to.

With sim purchases, you can either buy mainland, which is cheaper tier per month but usually more expensive upfront, or buy an island which is the exact opposite situation. Also, an island allows you more control over your land with its land controls. Of course, an island is the way to go if you want to get far as far away as possible. If you are good at terraforming, then you can just take the standard islands LL uses and redo them to your liking. If you're not good at terraforming, they can do it for you for a fee I believe, or another SL resident can do it for you, perhaps for free.

Don't expect 100% uptime. In addition to the normal downtimes for maintenance and upgrades, there will be times when, for unknown reasons, your island will be offline. This recently happened to me and LL cannot explain it, but three of my tenants all swear to it. Desmond's advice is very good.

It actually does not matter as you can get your island moved to a new location at anytime. Good luck!

The Info Island Archipelago is a cluster of islands containing libraries, universities, and other educational institutions. You might want to have your island placed there. And there is an educational discount for island purchases. You can contact Lorelei Junot for more information.

Yes if you don't mind the charge of $150 per move.

Lucky you. What will you do with it?

Are you allowed to say which school? Curious. I have heard of an online school working in here, is that you.

If your university is offering to buy you an island, think big. Forget Second Life and buy Australia!