Lost my Belli Zip and not sure how to get it back

[Raspberry Crystal]

I've been really engaged, map and forum watching since before the first releases last (May was it?)

There's been so many things about this new project that have been fascinating, and I've so much enjoyed interacting with everyone on the forum and joining in the buzz.

I love the houses, but my overall pleasure has been in watching this unique virtual landscape unfold in surprising and wonderful ways.

I expect like many others that I've had hopes or expectations which were never practical, or likely to happen, or maybe just down to my personal wants and not shared by others, and I've made sense of all that and still felt engaged.

Now though, I just don't seem to be able to get past the region cloning in the new builds.

I'm not saying it's a logical reaction, after all, the old continent was cloned to the max and I dealt with it in that context. 

Maybe because Belli felt like a bit of a dream slightly outside of the rest of second life, or even more like a real place that was being revealed out of the mist. Bellisseria engaged my imagination and drew me in.

Now the edges are reaching out to the old mainland, possibly not such a bad thing long term, but in my mind at the moment, those two landscapes don't fit too well together. With that, and the seeming refocus on home plots rather than extra amenities, it's as if the piece of string that attached me to this place has been gently cut and I'm drifting away without knowing what to do about it.

Belli so much exceeded my expectations, and it is still there, and what exists now is very lovely, and I'm frustrated to have my house not decorated and feel unmotivated to continue.

Any thoughts?

 

[Eowyn Southmoor]

1 hour ago, Raspberry Crystal said:

Now the edges are reaching out to the old mainland, possibly not such a bad thing long term, but in my mind at the moment, those two landscapes don't fit too well together. With that, and the seeming refocus on home plots rather than extra amenities

Just quoted this part which I'd like to respond to.

Firstly, I agree that the landscape between the Bellisseria and either Sansar or Jeogeot doesn't fit too well together- of course it never can, as the other continents are mainland where anything goes. I don't see that as much of an issue though. For explorers, it simply means they will get to see more variety as they travel, even if some of it is rather ugly  

Most residents in Belli though will never even see these meeting continents, as overall many people rarely explore, other that going to a few places for events or where friends are.. so for them this wont be an issue.

Not sure I understand the part about refocusing on home plots rather than extra amenities. LL never shifted focused away from homes - it's the entire purpose of Bellisseria. All the community areas, pools, pickle shacks, airfields etc etc, these were all just icing on the cake, a "bonus" if you like for the people living there. All through that though, LL's focus has been to ensure that they build the approx. 38000 homes they need for premium members. That will remain their focus until the project is complete. Adding amenities is and always will be a secondary consideration, as it should be - whilst it's great for those of us living in Belli to have all this cool stuff - we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that many people are still waiting for homes, and they wouldn't be happy if they had to wait even longer due to LL being delayed by non-essential requests.

The next few months will be very interesting regardless.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Eowyn Southmoor

[Della Starlight]

I suggest taking a "wait and see" attitude...we are drawing conclusions based on little squiggles on a map...the fear is that the Victorian areas will be like the Meadowbrook and Tahoe areas...totally "cookie cutter". I think and hope that will not be the case with the new regions.

After all is said and done, we will still have our lovely parcels in the "old" Bellisseria!

[Alyona Su]

2 hours ago, Raspberry Crystal said:

Now though, I just don't seem to be able to get past the region cloning in the new builds.

Remember that you can only ever see the cloning on the world map. You cannot see the cloning "on the ground". Even in the old original Linden Homes, one never got the impression of cloning - even if walking or flying around. Cloning is only obvious on the world map.

As for neighborhoods and streets all looking so similar, remember that this happens in RL also:

And we all know there are more extreme examples.

My main point is that region-cloning is only visible on the World Map, you cannot even see it on the Mini-Map, no matter how far you zoom-out on it. So keep a positive mind, you'll see: when on the ground, you're going to love it.

[Sister Nova]

My first suggestion would be to stop looking too closely at the map. It’s only when you look at the regions in South Bellisseria that any notion of duplication becomes apparent. It has already been said in a couple of threads that this will not be nearly as obvious when you’re out and about exploring as each region will have different styles of the house according to the owners’ preference, and that is then taken further by the fact that there are many colour combinations too!

Second, go explore some mainland. Take your eyes off South Bellisseria and look south to Jeogeot, or north to Sansara, or even further north to Heterocera! You’ll see roads and water on each one, and railway too on Heterocera.

I love the mainland and have several parcels on Sansara and one on Jeogeot. My home is in the north east of Sansara by the wonderful town of Greater Coniston, and I have a cabin in the snow lands to the west. I love being able to fly, sail, and drive between them all (my journeys to Jeogeot are currently curtailed due to the disconnection as a result of the building secrecy but will recommence once all are linked again), and having a trailer in Bellisseria is a wonderful vacation home.

As much as I do love the mainland, it’s always a pleasure going to Bellisseria and being able to appreciate all the work that has been done there. Having looked further afield, and even going across to the other mainland continents that aren’t joined to Bellisseria (yet?  ), I feel sure that you’ll regain your appreciation of Bellisseria once again.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Walpurgisnacht
iPad autocorrect... grrrr!

[Luna Bliss]

Maybe this will just be one type of home where the regions will have a more cloned appearance -- the Vics with formal gardens. Would be nice to see some Vics in a more wilderness landscape with those lovely waterfalls and ponds though.

[Raspberry Crystal]

24 minutes ago, Walpurgisnacht said:

Second, go explore some mainland. Take your eyes off South Bellisseria and look south to Jeogeot, or north to Sansara, or even further north to Heterocera! You’ll see roads and water on each one, and railway too on Heterocera.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. @Walpurgisnacht I have had plots on all those continents you mention, and a few more! I do think that time away would be helpful though, to get a fresh perspective..

Like @Luna Bliss I'm hoping that new developments might go back to the old pattern, but I'm not sure how hopeful I feel when I see the houseboat pickle doubled.

This may have been the plan all along, but I didn't know that, so for me, it's a change.

@Alyona Su I do use the map so much, it's part of my enjoyment, choosing somewhere to visit by looking at the map. I did think though, that there are probably already cloned patterns within existing Belli that i haven't noticed.

3 hours ago, Eowyn Southmoor said:

Most residents in Belli though will never even see these meeting continents, as overall many people rarely explore, other that going to a few places for events or where friends are.. so for them this wont be an issue.

Yes, I am realising this, and many people keep their draw distance fairly low all the time as well.

 

2 hours ago, DellaLaBella said:

I suggest taking a "wait and see" attitude...we are drawing conclusions based on little squiggles on a map...the fear is that the Victorian areas will be like the Meadowbrook and Tahoe areas...totally "cookie cutter". I think and hope that will not be the case with the new regions.

After all is said and done, we will still have our lovely parcels in the "old" Bellisseria!

Yes, and I'm frustrated with myself wanting more when what we have is already lovely! I think the planting and quality of houses will elevate the feel of the neighbourhoods beyond what the Lindens achieved with the old continent.

[Marianne Little]

45 minutes ago, Raspberry Crystal said:

Yes, and I'm frustrated with myself wanting more when what we have is already lovely! I think the planting and quality of houses will elevate the feel of the neighbourhoods beyond what the Lindens achieved with the old continent.

For me, I think some of it is that LL has raised our expectations, and it had to flat out somewhere. Much of the feelings I have now is because I need a new type home to decorate and live in. I need something so I stop overthinking things.

It feels like it's months since the Christmas Expo opened. I want them released and get it over with. It has been days, not months. Still feels like long days.

I also like to look at the map, but I am not going to try for a houseboat, so why do I look there. I am done with houseboats, they does not suit me. It is practical to clone, and LL need many more homes fast.

Still, I hope that LL will move them. They did it with Squishy Pickle 1, but that does not need to happen again.

I want a Victorian. But the showcase we have at the Christmas Expo is a showcase, and not a copy of a real Victorian region. I say to myself: "There will not be so many flowers and decor, and the houses will be closer". It is better to teleport to the real regions and be pleasantly surprised. I can't wait to see them.

I think it will feel better when it is all released. Even if I miss a Victorian in the big release, I can walk in the regions and have autorefresh running. Sooner or later, some will abandon, or their Premium will expire.

[Beth Macbain]

How sad for the Moles and Lindens who have been working days and nights and holidays and weekends to have to see this. 

Merry Christmas, I guess? 

[Leora Jacobus]

I think they will not be SAD just because ONE among thousands of customers is not quite happy with what they created and openly utters some critizism. They do not see themselves as GODS or other divine beings  like you obviously do

Overall they did a great job creating Bellisseria and I am one of their fans, but if they really started cloning regions (which I doubt they'll be doing! - wait till they are released!!) then quite a lot of people would not like that ... me too!

[Beth Macbain]

7 minutes ago, Leora Jacobus said:

They do not see themselves as GODS or other divine beings  like you obviously do

Actually, I see them as human beings with feelings. 

[Ardy Lay]

You made a beautiful and delicious pie, and shared it with a few people.  Word spread and more people want some of this pie.  What are you going to do?  Change the recipe?  😉

No, you make more identical pies until the demand slows, since you cannot go back in time and make the first popular pie larger.

Then you try to make a new, huge pie using a new recipe and hope it too will be popular.

Wait a minute.  I forgot where I was going with this.

Oh well.  Have some pie!

Edited December 15, 2019 by Ardy Lay

[Leora Jacobus]

6 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

Actually, I see them as human beings with feelings. 

Which they obviously are: Human beings that work hard and mostly successfull and can be proud of what they created overall and get praised for it ... but also apt to make mistakes and wrong decisions from time to time for which they face some criticism ... and can live with it (though maybe annoyed) like we all do.

 

[Beth Macbain]

1 minute ago, Leora Jacobus said:

Which they obviously are: Human beings that work hard and mostly successfull and can be proud of what they created overall and get praised for it ... but also apt to make mistakes and wrong decisions from time to time for which they face some criticism ... and can live with it (though maybe annoyed) like we all do.

 

It's really no wonder that most of the Lindens and Moles have stepped away from interacting with the forums and groups other than to step in occasionally to correct some misconception. 

[Dyna Mole]

@Raspberry Crystal I found your zip.  It's right where you left it, in Campwich Forest.

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, Beth Macbain said:

It's really no wonder that most of the Lindens and Moles have stepped away from interacting with the forums and groups other than to step in occasionally to correct some misconception. 

Maybe you are overreacting. They have been active in threads I have read, one or two days ago. I can not link it, because then I am "calling them out", as you so nice pointed out to me before. 😑

And they have a huge load of work now, and it is soon Christmas. Usually that has something to do with how frequent one can post.

[Beth Macbain]

11 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

Maybe you are overreacting.

Am I? I recall Abnor recently popping up to defend the work being done currently in that demand for more sailing water thread, and Patch pops up every now and again usually to correct some misconception or try to inject a bit of levity. Quartz and Dyna are really the only ones who post with any regularity anymore. 

I just took a peek at my inworld groups as well, and though Patch was, as of a few days ago anyway, a member of most of them, it seems that now he's left them for some reason. 

I wonder why. 

[Nika Talaj]

7 hours ago, Raspberry Crystal said:

... it's as if the piece of string that attached me to this place has been gently cut and I'm drifting away without knowing what to do about it.

Belli so much exceeded my expectations, and it is still there, and what exists now is very lovely, and I'm frustrated to have my house not decorated and feel unmotivated to continue.

Your expression of loss is so poignant.  And it's a very SL feeling.  SL is all about longing ... often for things we lost in RL. Longing for the body we lost years ago, longing for the dance moves we don't have, longing for the perfect partner, longing for our own home.  And Christmas, for many of us, also brings up feelings of loss and longing.  In this case, though, you haven't actually lost anything - as you say, everything you love about Belli is still there.  If LL is moving on to a different aesthetic, then we who have been hopping are SO privileged to have homes in some of the most beautiful lands LL has ever created.  No one is taking those homes away.  *Hugs her favorite Belli home*  And we will always have the ability to claim a new home,  the continent we now occupy is large enough that there will always be abandons.

You know, sometimes decorating can be a burden, particularly if you've owned several different properties.  It gets to be the same thing, over and over, if you let it.  So I'm taking time out to do a little silly holiday decorating *rubs hands together just slightly evilly*.  I hope that later today my houseboat will sport a Christmas tree bobbing on a raft (no, not using physics!) in the mostly empty water in my parcel, and there will probably be a big gold star rotating above it, making spirals of particle stars that sink, slightly glowing, beneath the sea.  This (hopefully not horrific) little number will cause me to smile every time I drop by.

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to make my Christmas flamingos bow politely or throw snowballs and turkeys at passersby before I put them out.  I'm really looking forward to getting a home in one of the more formal Victorian neighborhoods.  *snerk*

About the map.  I, too, look at the map a lot.  But it is SO limited - as others have said,  we must wait and see what South Belli actually looks like.  I see rocks here and there on the coastline, lots of plants, some uneven walls that might be rocky ... hard to tell.  My bet is that some of the shoreline Victorians are going to be stunning.  NAME THOSE COASTAL REGIONS, LL& MOLES, I WANT A CRACK AT THEM!   KTHXBYE

Personally, I don't feel too bad about the cloning of the squishy pickle.  A lot of residents there are after a "marina" experience.  Water is the landscape they most crave, and if you love the water, it can be nice to know you're surrounded by boats,.

Lastly, don't underestimate the charm of being in the new homes.

Courtesy of an addition and a little hand-crafting, my partner and I have made a home that's very like a Victorian.

Only with 80 fewer prims to play with.

And an awkward layout with one too many stairways.

And limitations on how we can texture it, due to the build technique used in the addition.

I'm really looking forward to the new Victorians!

[Milk Pixelmaid]

Support your favorite moles by boycotting the cloned regions. That’s less work for them. A lot of them will lose jobs if this trend continues. 

[Polenth Yue]

You're not wrong to have preferences and it's not mandatory to like the new areas. I stopped watching the building as closely when I saw the direction it was taking. I am that person who notices cloning on the ground, because I notice and remember small details. I guessed the next theme on minimal clues due to that. I'm not going to react in the same way as the person who notices nothing until it's pointed out.

However, I would suggest not letting it get you down about the areas you like. I'll still be riding trains in the main camping area and swimming around the old sea areas. If you have a house in the old areas, enjoy it. Cloning ten regions over doesn't change the house you have now. We also do have a few regions left to watch being built in the old way.

[Pussycat Catnap]

10 hours ago, Raspberry Crystal said:

Now though, I just don't seem to be able to get past the region cloning in the new builds.

Maybe because Belli felt like a bit of a dream slightly outside of the rest of second life, or even more like a real place that was being revealed out of the mist. Bellisseria engaged my imagination and drew me in.

Now the edges are reaching out to the old mainland, possibly not such a bad thing long term, but in my mind at the moment, those two landscapes don't fit too well together. With that, and the seeming refocus on home plots rather than extra amenities, it's as if the piece of string that attached me to this place has been gently cut and I'm drifting away without knowing what to do about it.

I kinda agree.

Victorian regions don't look as interesting to me as the old ones, and the new houseboat regions make me VERY GLAD I got in before them.

Hopefully my impression 'on the ground' of the new Victorians will differ. I'm not a fan of the houseboats in the NorthWest of old Bellisseria either - so of course that theme repeating is not my thing - but many DO LIKE sand, beach, and boats as a theme. I just wish the theme I did get was also being used more (it is on some of the new islands - so I am glad I got it beforehand because my odds of getting it later on would be a lot lower).

 

I didn't reside in the old Linden Homes, and this was a part of why (only a part - the old homes were also dated almost right out of the gate as mesh came out around a similar point in time).

To the south of Bellisseria we see new linden homes popping up west of the old continent - and they're all clone designs and the people on the eastern most of them will have old mainland in camera distance - with all of it's blight... I feel for the people who end up with those plots. Some of them will like it though - and as long as supply eventually outpaces demand those that do not will be able to move.

Not ALL of the Victorian sims are clones... and I expect to be using up my 5 moves per day until I get on a non-clone sim... I do not know how hard this will end up being to achieve... but it's the goal.

And yes... the focus on plots but no amenities is worrisome. The response to my request for some water was disheartening... That some do not understand that you get nothing if you ask for nothing... and if you wish for something, you want to ask for it long in advance... this is NOT criticism... not something anyone needs to pop in to defend against... it's a request...

...another major reason I avoided the old Linden Homes was there was NOTHING to do there... Thus far that was not the case in Bellisseria - but we just LOST a lot of water... and my request had people disagreeing with the desire for any water... so again... some will like a continent that becomes nothing more than a TP-Home button... but I hope that day does not arrive...

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[missyrideout]

My suggestion to the OP is offered with all due respect: take a break from the forums! Wander around, look at things from the ground. Be in the world. All that BS. 

[karynmaria]

I still have tons of excitement for the homes and the Victorians that are coming out.  I am not bothered by seeing the mainland and Bellisseria being closer together.    It is like having peace and quiet in the middle of a storm.   Mainland to me has always been chaotic and out there in my face and the LH's to me has always been about simple, quiet and peaceful.

I don't put too much stock into maps, I want to see the area and be in it.   Maps tell you nothing.   I don't really see where stuff is really cloned that much other than some of the houseboat islands but those make sense to me.

I also think that we have all become a little obsessed with these new houses and trying to find perfection.  Not that I am criticizing cause I have been doing it myself.  I currently have a camper, a houseboat and a traditional house.  And yes I have a 4th alt for a month to try out the victorian.  I have never had more than one premium account and now I have like 4.  I know at some point I am going to have to just go down to one.   But I have them because I am really enjoying this whole process of the new LH and watching it unfold.

I think we also have to be careful that we don't have too high expectations.  There is nothing wrong either with taking a break if you need one.  

[Zero Starchild]

TBH I find much of this to be insane lol. Taking things way too seriously.

[Alwin Alcott]

12 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

It's really no wonder that most of the Lindens and Moles have stepped away from interacting with the forums and groups other than to step in occasionally to correct some misconception. 

They are still around   just a bit less responses, and i think that's a good thing.
Some people felt the atmosphere was getting a bit to much "we and the moles" excuding lot of members who didn't want to be in those clique groups and also not visit the forums.