buying "blank" land for terraforming and starting from scratch

[Irrek Oanomochi]

Hello all:  

I want to buy either "blank" land that I can terraform or land I can RE-terraform in which to create a sort of desert outlier homestead/ranch. I'm thinking to start my shelter with shipping containers and design the rest from there as I learn about building and terraforming. 

Any comments, tips, and/or suggestions appreciated. Cheers! 

[Alicia Sautereau]

everything is *blank* when buying land

[Thinkerer Melville]

You can terraform any land to suit you.  If you own a private sim, you have much more control.   Here are some intro instructions:

• Terraforming, Starter page

• Land 201: Advanced land management-summary

• Parcels: How to subdivide and join parcels 

There are some tools that will help.  I will give you a free land flattener, if you want. -- just contact me.  There are probalbly lots of better tools on the marketplace.

TKR

 

 

 

 

[Irrek Oanomochi]

Thank you Thinkerer! I will do my homework and perhaps contact you in the future about the flattener Many thanks! 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Mainland for the most part can't be terraformed more than + or - 4meters.  Private estates may not allow it at all, have restrictions, or you have to get the estate owner to do it for you.

Always check the covenant and if it is not clear if it is allowed and what the limits are ASK the estate owner so you don't get in trouble and get evicted.  You should also be sure the kind of build you are wanting to do is allowed,  Many residential estates would not allow what you describe.  Again check the covenant and ask before putting any money down.  You may need commercial land or a sim with no covenant. 

Be aware you can only change the land textures if you own or rent the whole sim and have estate rights.  So if you are looking for less than a sim you may have a problem finding a suitable desert environment.  Beach sand is easy to find though.

[Irrek Oanomochi]

Thank you – that's the low-down I needed

[Irrek Oanomochi]

In a related question –– let's say I build something/whatever – from an entire themed sim or estate to simply plopping down a structure with a chair in it. Then I need to move, for whatever reason. Can I "pack up" everything I've created to install it somewhere else or store digitally so that I do not lose my time investment in whatever I've created? 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Yes you can.  If you want to be able to rez them out on the new sim in the exact same way you had them set out on the former one, you can use a rez box. Items must be modifiable.  You set the rez box out in the middle of the land.  Then you drip a script into each link set and it records its position on the sim relative to the box.  Then you take up each item and put it in the rez box. In the box description write the position and rotation vectors where the box is located.  Find this out by editing the box and looking on the object tab.  When you get to the next place  you set the box out at the same coordinates and click it , and everything will rez out like it was before. 

Rez boxes come in two flavors.  One that only works with objects no more than 96 meters away from the box, and one that will work with everything sim wide.  Here is a free basic one of the type that works sim wide. 

For terraforming, if you have the entire sim you can ask the estate owner to bake it for you after you have terraformed it and to get a RAW file for it and send it to you.  If you move to another sim you can have the estate owner upload it for you to the new sim and voila, instant terraform.  This only works sim wide though, so if you have less than a sim this is not an option.

Terrain textures can be applied to a sim and when you like the combination and settings, simple write down the numbers for each setting the the names of the textures you used so you can duplicate it on another sim.

[Irrek Oanomochi]

Thank you so much for this extensive info. Much appreciated!