~Linking Objects~

I have only been building for less than a month but have a question about linking objects. I was wondering why when linking I get the message that the link fails because things are too far apart. I understand what it is saying, but why? Even things that are next to each other can't be linked. I heard that there is a limit of how many objects can be linked...200 something? I am working on a castle but it won't link more than like 5 or 6 pieces to a link. I know I can fly up and highlight the area and just take it into inventory but I want to be able to link the whole object. It seems since building is a major part of SL that this should be able to be done. Am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions? If it can't be done then it would be a helpful feature addition.

ZsuZsanna, one of two things could be going on here. Either the objects truly are too far apart or else you're experiencing a well known bug that just happens sometimes. Since your object is a castle, something I assume is fairly large, I'd be the former is most likely the case. Let me explain a little about how linking works.

The linkable distance between any two prims is directly proportional to their combined size. Think of it kind of like gravity. The bigger the object, the greater the distance from which it can pull other objects toward itself.

For prims that are 10x10, the maximum linkable distance is somewhere around 30 meters from center to center. Notice you can like four 10M cubes in a row, but not 5. For smaller objects, the max distance falls off quickly.

You asked why the distance limit. I believe it has everything to do with property management. The way SL determines where an object is is by where it's center point is. Let's say I were to build an object that is 100 meters wide, but my land is only 50 meters wide. My neighbors on either side would now have to deal with my object protruding 25 meters into their land, and there'd be nothing they could do about since the object's center would be over my land. The only way to prevent me from being so inconsiderate is just to make sure I can't build an object that big.

Keep in mind, by the way, that for a stationary object like a castle, you don't NEED to link anything at all. It's not like a real castle that would need all its bricks glued together with mortar or it would fall down. Prims stay where they're put. If it were a moving object like a vehicle, then yes it would function best as all one linkset, but for something that doesn't move, linking is largely irrelevant. Either build it in linked sections or keep it entirely unlinked. It really doesn't matter. The only advantage linking will give you at all is it can be a faster way to select everything, especially if the building is too large to select all at once by using drawing a selection box, meaning some of the prims are out of your immediate reach. In that case, you can select the whole thing just by making sure the parent prim of each linked group is within your reach. The prims you can't reach will then get selected as you select their parents. Other than that, it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Chosen, while you're right for the most part, selling a completely delinked house is a good equation for getting yourself yelled at when the new owner drops the single house object then tries to move it. While I understand this may be necessary for large houses (as I have sold quite a few), it's completely unnecessary for small ones.

Lord only knows how many quick fixes I've had to do because the owner tried to move the house and got it all out of whack, usually they have to delete it and I have to give them a new house then lock it down.