512m2?

[Cio Koba]

What can I do with 512m2?

What can I fit in 512m2?

Is there really any use for a 512m2 piece of land?

Tell me please!

[Randall Ahren]

It's big enough for me. Get yourself a vendor and put in a shop at ground level and build a megaprim skybox up above cloud level for residential use and developmental building. If you need a few more prims, form a group and get 560 sqm for the same tier as 512 sqm.

Edit: You could get this skybox for 50L by LoLeSk Ulich, which includes the furniture and requires only 100 prims total. That would leave you with 17 prims leftover to play with on a 512 sqm parcel.

[Pussycat Catnap]

In my original 512 I managed to fit a garden at ground, a cafe in the sky, a shop above that, and a home above that. All furnished and stocked with my early selection of goods.

But if you buy land for a group you own along with an alt of yours (only 1 of you needs to be premium), you get 560m of land and not just 512.

 

 

I sell a couple of skyboxes designed for 512m lots, and currently live in one of them:

Lots of room inside:

 

The two buildings seen below fit to 512m lots are were modified from skybox designs of mine to fit at ground:

Those two buildings are presently rezzed in Bay City Truro on my land there. One at ground and the other in the sky - though the lot is larger than 512.

The one at top right there was my old home:

Could go on with snapshots of my old cafe and garden. But it looks like I didn't keep any of the garden pics until after my lot grew to a 1024.

 

[Charolotte Caxton]

Wow, thats great news!

[Marianne McCann]

Think of a 512m as a challenge.

With the advent of sculpts, using a 512m can be quite fun. Ship diligently, and you can make for quite a nice little parcel for home or business.

Heck, I even have a modest little hangout space on a 117m parcel, and it too does not feel bare. 

 

[Luc Starsider]

It is a challenge, but you can do everything with a 512 m2 lot that you can do with a bigger lot. Only in smaller scale and with less prims. (So perhaps you can't do *everything*... )

- Luc -

[Lynda Klossovsky]

give it me lol:matte-motes-big-grin:

[Ian Undercroft]

 

It's perhaps worth pointing out that if you're a premium member you can get your 512 in the form of a Linden Home. The building which is the home doesn't count against your prim allocation leaving you with the full 117 prims still to use.

[Cio Koba]

Tanks to everyone!

What I firstly extract from all is that you would recomend me to build something in the skies, that sounds good.

Do u have to keep the skybox inside the land perimeter? I dont pretend to annoy any neighboors, but maybe just a bit to the sides..

How does the group buying goes? I made a group long time ago, is that enough?

Ian, im premium indeed, and the way that the house doesnt count on the prims, is just enough to really consider that idea. The thing is that its been 4 years in sl already and ive never owned land, so in heart I prefer the mainland, even with its cons.

Thanks in special to Qwalyphi for the inspiring post! Put like that 115 seem a lot of prims! Few days ago, a post on microAVs, made me think.. Shouldnt we all make an effort and lower the height of our AVs? It is really a way to save money, have bigger sims and use less prims, specially now that mesh is coming and the bigger it is the more prims it has, correct me if Im wrong.

So, in conclusion, I will get the land and not make a home as it is, but just a hang out place, like a bar or something, once finished ill invite you all there!

And im remember that im still open to further advice. ; )

[Marianne McCann]

---

Cio Koba wrote:

Do u have to keep the skybox inside the land perimeter? I dont pretend to annoy any neighboors, but maybe just a bit to the sides..

---

A land boundary is a land boundary is a land boundary. It does not matter if you are at ground level or at 4096m in the air. You should not encroach on your neighbors properties.

[Venus Petrov]

I agree with the idea of going premium and getting that Linden house.  Those 117 prims for your house (a sofa and some pillows on the floor for guests?) might be all that you need to start.  Once you find yourself running out of prims, that is the time to look for a larger parcel and build or buy a home or skybox.

Above all, enjoy your SL experience.

[Randall Ahren]

---

Cio Koba wrote:

How does the group buying goes? I made a group long time ago, is that enough?

---

If the group is still active, yes. Edit groups and see if you can activate it. If not you can form another group. You just have to pay 100L to form the new group. Once you have your group ready, go premium, and contribute your 512 sqm of tier to the group. Then find a parcel you like, activate your group and click the button that says buy for group under "About Land".

[Pussycat Catnap]

---

Cio Koba wrote:

 

Do u have to keep the skybox inside the land perimeter? I dont pretend to annoy any neighboors, but maybe just a bit to the sides..

---

Yes. Its an ARable offense to put your stuff on somebody else's land, even partly.

But just edit by the numbers and its trivially easy to keep things in bounds.

 

 

[Hugsy Penguin]

---

Cio Koba wrote:

 

Do u have to keep the skybox inside the land perimeter? I dont pretend to annoy any neighboors, but maybe just a bit to the sides..

---

Feel free to ask your neighbor.  If you are building in the sky at an altitude away from other builds and really only want to overhang a little bit (a meter or so?) then I would think most people would oblige.  But if they say "no", then you need to keep your stuff on your own land.

[Josephina Bonetto]

I keep my office on my fee free premium 512 sq m in Levkoy.  It is a nice size and I have a tree and swing all at ground.  I prefer being at ground level and always try to avoid sky, it just doesn't cut it for me, being at ground level is much more fun.  I live within my 1/4 region in Trueblood so I am less pressured than most.

[Jaylin Wytchwood]

My wife & me use our both 512m2 together in a group as a secondary domicile / guesthome / rentable

[Perrie Juran]

I am still of the firm opinion that unless you are wanting to buy a larger parcel that under the current plan premium is a waste and that renting is still the better way to go.

While the 'free home' with premium may be good for LL (and I will question whether this really is too) it is a terrible business practice and a slam in the face of the land owners in SL. It is a horrible position to be in business wise, when your supplier also becomes your competitor.

I currently rent a 2048 sky box.  I have been there for over three years now.  House, some landscaping, an Intan dance hud supplied by the Land Lord.  I pay 3000L a month an get 400 prims with this.  At today's market rate  that is about $12.00 U.S. a month.

I am not Premium acct.  Simply have never had the need for it.

I do recommend renting on mainland over estate because I don't have a worry if my land lord skips town that I will find the SIM shut down and that I can't retrieve my belongings.

[Kolby Nissondorf]

Well..it all depends on what you actually want to fit in there.

If you want a house, they have them made specifically for 512 sqm plots of land, just check the marketplace.

If you dont want 512, then just upgrade if your not satisfied with it.

[Hugsy Penguin]

For someone who wants 2048m² of land for their build, here's how your rental stacks up against Linden Lab's deal:

Your Rental:

    Land Size:            2048m²
    Prim Allocation:      400 prims
    Rent L$:              L$3000/month (L$36000/year)

    Total Cost US$:       US$12/month (US$144/year)
   
    m²/US$/year:          ~14.2
    prims/US$/year:       ~2.8

Linden Lab Premium Account:

    Land Size:            2048m² + 512m² (2560m²)
    Prim Allocation:      468 prims + 117 prims (585 prims)
    Tier Fee:             US$15/month (US$180/year)
    Premium Account Fee:  US$72/year
    Weekly Stipend L$:    L$300/week (L$15600/year)
    Weekly Stipend US$:   US$1.20/week (US$62.40/year)
   
    Total Cost US$:       US$18.80/month (US$189.60/year)
   
    m²/US$/year:          ~13.5
    prims/US$/year:       ~3.1

The premium account numbers do not include the 10% bonus for group land which would sweeten the deal a bit.

The premium account numbers do not include premium account fees for quarterly or monthly which would sour the deal a bit.

The premium account numbers do not include the upfront cost of buying the land from the current owner which would sour the deal a bit for the first year.  There was no indication of any upfront cost for the rental.

The Linden dollar to U.S. dollar conversion is done at the current rate according to the LindeX.

In order to get the numbers indicated for the LL deal, you have to do two things:  stick with it for the full year and cash out your stipend without spending any of it.
   
Because the two aren't exactly the same in land size and prim allocation, I calculated the square meters per annual U.S. dollar (m²/US$/year) and the prims per annual U.S. dollar (prims/US$/year) for each.  Your rental gives you more square meters of land per annual U.S. dollar.  LL gives more prims per annual U.S. dollar.

It looks to me like you've got a better deal, however, the one offered by LL isn't that much worse.  Of coarse there's a lot of things to consider (besides out-of-pocket expense) when deciding between renting and buying.

[Perrie Juran]

I know that I have a very good deal where I am located.  I am also blessed with a very good Land Lord.  The few problems I have had have been fixed always within 24 hours, and most of the time in under an hour.

My primary objection is to the practice in general. In RL I have been in the position of my supplier also becoming my competitor.  And I have seen it happen to other businesses also.  It sucks and generally in the long term backfires. 

I know from speaking with my Land Lord, and he has smaller places for rent also, his rentals are down.  Not enough for him to pull out of the business yet.  But it is frustrating for him.  Maybe some one would buy his SIMs but there already is a ton of abandoned main land out there. 

I haven't crunched the numbers but how many Linden Homes does the Lab have to fill in order to make up for the lost tier from one abandoned SIM?

Maybe the Linden Homes are resulting in better new user retention.  Only LL really can crunch that number.  But I actually don't think it can.  The only advantage I see is that by getting the new user to sign up for Premium is that they now have a stake in the game.  A psychological reason to continue.  Like the guy who gets hung up at the craps table trying to win his losings back.

It's all a matter of added value.  My Land Lord is giving me back a greater to me value than what the value offered by Premium membership gives.  Each user needs to decide what works for them best.

That's pretty much my two cents worth on the subject.  I just think it's a bad business practice that experientially  I have seen come back to bite companies in the ass.

[Cio Koba]

Ive been in sl since 07, but started reading the forums maybe 3 months ago, im glad i did it, cause im learning a lot from all of you. It surprises me, sometimes I feel im still a noob, and that there are many aspects of sl i have yet to explore.

Basically I never had the urge to rent or buy, when i started I squated what looked like an abandoned house untill the owner kicked me out, then I built a house to pop out at sandboxes and after that Ive just been wondering around. Its been this year that I suddenly felt I wanted a house, maybe some new friendships I made or reading blogs and the forum that made me change.

So after all this and your wise advise, Ive already bought my 512 parcel and Im starting the build. Finally Im staying on ground level as my surroundings are quite nice.  I will post  some pics one of this days for the curious out there.

Once again thank you all!

Btw, why did they moved this post to off topic?

 

[Cio Koba]

I posted It on Mainland, anyway who cares!  :manvery-happy:

[Cio Koba]

This is my little lair after 2 days editing the house and furnishing.

[Charolotte Caxton]

Wow, cool! Love the open air loft neato . The little couch outside is cute.

[Penny Patton]

512sq.m. is actually a HUGE amount of space. Like I suggested in the "making SL more game-like" thread, the more you up-scale your house and other contenet, the less room you have.

Most people up-scale their houses by at least douible size. This pretty much reduces your 512sq.m. parcel to a 128sq.m. parcel right from the get go. Over a certain size, larger builds also take up more prims. A 10x10m floor can be made with a single prim, a 20x20m floor requires four prims and so on.

I recommend fixing the camera placement within your viewer so that you can build smaller and make the most of your prims and space. If you're not concerned with being as tall as everyone else you may want to reduce your avatar's size to further increase your effective living space. An avatar that's 8' tall is effectively cutting their living area in half. (you can use a pose stand and a prim to measure yourself. The height in the appearance editor and most scripted height detectors is wrong due to a bug with AgentHeight LL has never corrected.)

 

I don't have a 512 of my own, but here's a 2048sq.m. parcel done 1=1 scale. EVERYTHING from the yellow sign in the foreground to a bit past the black water tower in the background is a part of this parcel.

To put it in perspective, a 2048sq.m. parcel is 468 prims.So four times the size of a 512. Most people put a single large house in a parcel this size, despite the fact that it's right abouta quarter the size of your average Wal Mart. Often pushing up to or close to the parcel borders on all sides. Generally about 3-4 rooms and sparsely furnished. 2048 parcels are still considered fairly small. You'd be able to carve a full sim up into 32 of these.

 Here's a top view. The blue area is my entire 2048sq.m. parcel. Green is approximately the area of a 512sq.m.parcel. The read area is actually off the edge of the sim. This parcel is on the sim border with no sim on the other side, so I've got a small off-sim landscape

As you can see, the intact building, my shop, fits neatly into the 512sq.m. area, and to my 5'7" self it's a huge shop. My avatar is the black dot inside the red circle.

The shop is only three rooms, but that's because it's my store. The ground floor is a big open area with vendors on all the walls. (You can't see hte vendors in this screenshot because they're all in the back half of the room and this screenshot is looking from the stair well in the back towards the garage style door at the front. The shadows and light effects in all the following screenshots are faked with prims, adding to the prim count.

Upstairs is a small single room.

And down that hole in the middle of the shop area is an underground fallout shelter.

Granted, this building takes up 269 of the parcels 468 prims even tho it fits into the area of a 512sq.m. parcel.An actual 512 parcel would only have 117 prims at it's disposal. So a little less than half. If I cut out the fallout shelter and all the vendors I bring the shop down to about that much. If I reduce the size of the main floor by about half I can free up enough prims to completely furnish the remaining building and landscape the land outside.

Actually, I'd cut out the stairwell and top floor altogether and just split the ground floor up into multiple rooms. That would save me even more prims! At least 3-4 times as many. Could probably keep the fallout shelter, then. Could split the ground floor into one big garage and two smaller rooms

 

I'd recommend only buying moddable low-prim furniture. If you consider yourself halfway decent with building using regular prims, pick up an item called "Prim Oven" which allows you to take up to 16 boxes and/or cylinders and turn them into a single 1-prim sculpt. You can use that to easily reduce most furniture to only a handful of prims.