What will happen with the Linden Homes on Bellisseria start looking dated?

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

This is a picture of an old Linden Home neighborhood for Premium Members only in Igneosara. I wonder how long it will take for Bellisseria to end up like this, empty, no one around, dated content.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Bellisseria, they did an amazing job with the landscaping and homes. But content creators improve their prefabs every year, they become more skilled at their craft and are constantly pumping out new and more beautiful products.

I wonder if they could switch out the homes at some point . Somehow.

What do you think?

 

[Chic Aeon]

Patch has stated many times that as soon as there is a good enough supply of Linden Homes in Belliseria, the old ones will be deleted.  The first of the Belli homes (Trads and Houseboats) will be two years old in a couple of months. That isn't really old.  Honestly some of my favorite purchased items as well as my own  best selling products are a decade old and somehow they are still worthwhile products.  So I am not seeing your argument as very valid. 

 

It took Linden Lab a decade to make new Linden Home versions and even then many of the old Linden Homes were still owned by premium members (as in not empty).  If LL keeps releasing new models (the Chalets are next apparently) then there will be a lot of choices for people.  So far I haven't seen Belli homes in any kind of abundance -- except of course when there is a huge release of a new style and then they are easy to get. So I think it will be a long while before there is any reason to worry. 

 

And as I have said often here and backed up by a few mesh makers (some professionals) newer isn't necessarily better. What we are seeing these last few years is more dense mesh and more "render mesh" uploaded from the web. That is NOT better, just newer.  

 

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Chic Aeon
grammar

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

5 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

 The first of the Belli homes (Trads and Houseboats) will be two years old in a couple of months. That isn't really old.

I'm not saying Bellisseria is old but I'd have to disagree with you about the shelf life of MOST SL content. There may be exceptions but most of what we see today on the SL marketplace is better than the content from 10 years ago.

I wonder if they're able to switch out the houses automatically somehow on Belliseria.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

Love the new Linden water homes on stilts!

[Eirynne Sieyes]

14 hours ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

I wonder if they're able to switch out the houses automatically somehow on Belliseria.

They are able to replace homes. They have plans to add versions of existing homes with open floor plans. The idea of new styles has also been mentioned if I'm not mistaken.

[Adamburp Adamczyk]

It'd be a shame if the "old" Linden homes went, there are a LOT of secret areas on them, if you take the time to explore.

[Lloyd Overland]

5 minutes ago, Adamburp Adamczyk said:

It'd be a shame if the "old" Linden homes went, there are a LOT of secret areas on them, if you take the time to explore.

I totally agree with this. Due to lockdown in UK I've spent a lot more time in world exploring and that has included wandering round the largest old Linden homes continent. I loved the little features and unexpected finds created by the Moles and really hope many can be moved to Bellisseria.

[Eirynne Sieyes]

1 hour ago, Lloyd Overland said:

I totally agree with this. Due to lockdown in UK I've spent a lot more time in world exploring and that has included wandering round the largest old Linden homes continent. I loved the little features and unexpected finds created by the Moles and really hope many can be moved to Bellisseria.

Would you mind leaving us a few landmarks?

[Lloyd Overland]

16 hours ago, Eirynne Sieyes said:

Would you mind leaving us a few landmarks?

Happy to share the landmarks I took, these are all from Premium East. Visiting again I really hope that these features and builds can be relocated to the expanding new areas in Bellisseria:

Orville Airport

Cape Ekim Park

Canard Resevoir

Racers Gulch

Seaplane Ramp

Tahoe Infohub

Shareta Osumai Infohub

 

[Eirynne Sieyes]

That's great Lloyd, thank you!

It's funny because I spent years living in an old LH but never took a look around. 

[Rufferta]

At one point I seem to remember there were four First Generation Linden Continents, but only one had most of the mini-quests that are so much fun to try to figure out.

One quest in Premium 1 starts in Libani - there is a note on the deck of the little structure in the teahouse on a lake. You will have to use mouselook to read the note. One clue: At one point using "sunset" or "sunrise" to increase terrain contrast is a help. This quest, I believe, was put together by Musical Misty Mole, and there is a prize at the end.

Later : I wanted to double check because I could not find two of the four First Generation Linden Premium Home continents using the World Map or content search, so I looked at some old Wikis and got Region names -

Premium 1 (or Premium East), which includes Cape Ekim, has Meadowbrook InfoHub in Meadowbrook Region. Another region is Canard.

Premium South 1's Meadowbrook InfoHub is in Bucksnort Region. Another region is Trona.

Premium South 2's Meadowbrook InfoHub is in Ravenbrook.

Premium South 3's Meadowbrook InfoHub is in Meadowcreek. Another region is Folcastle. 

Maybe they could just keep one of the original Premium continents - then shave all the area around important structures on the other and make it all sailing area?

Edited February 16, 2021 by Rufferta
Second thoughts, more research.

[Adamburp Adamczyk]

5 hours ago, Lloyd Overland said:

Happy to share the landmarks I took, these are all from Premium East. Visiting again I really hope that these features and builds can be relocated to the expanding new areas in Bellisseria:

Orville Airport

Cape Ekim Park

Canard Resevoir

Racers Gulch

Seaplane Ramp

Tahoe Infohub

Shareta Osumai Infohub

 

cape ekim, go to the lighthouse,

 

lowest level , look for the seashell on the wall.

 

enjoy.

[Lloyd Overland]

23 hours ago, Lloyd Overland said:

Happy to share the landmarks I took, these are all from Premium East. Visiting again I really hope that these features and builds can be relocated to the expanding new areas in Bellisseria:

Orville Airport

Cape Ekim Park

Canard Resevoir

Racers Gulch

Seaplane Ramp

Tahoe Infohub

Shareta Osumai Infohub

 

I should get out in my submarine more, here is a view under the water in Hiwa and nearby above the water in Hamachi:

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

On 2/14/2021 at 2:24 PM, Eirynne Sieyes said:

They are able to replace homes.

Ahhh very cool! I figured LL might have a way to swap them out quickly so they don't have wasted sims just hanging around empty once the houses start to lose their luster. The landscaping in Belliseria is very nice and it would be a shame to not see those sims used at some point.

[Eirynne Sieyes]

It will likely be a while before Belli gets additional styles per theme, though as they stand now, a resident is able to choose from among 4 styles per theme, and can swap among them out anytime, over and over. I don't think Belli is going anywhere anytime soon. 

I also think it was smart that Patch and the team chose to make the homes/plantings/infrastructure "primmy", so to speak. These entry-level homes (haha, I'm here over 15 years and own several) remain stable and viewable from a distance without collapsing, even on thin and light laptops - which I love since they weigh 2 pounds - or on entry level systems.  

[Fay Starlight]

On 2/15/2021 at 1:07 PM, Eirynne Sieyes said:

That's great Lloyd, thank you!

It's funny because I spent years living in an old LH but never took a look around. 

At Elderglen Infohubs you can get a jar  and some other magical freebies, and chase fairies and they will give you their wings (which you can wear)!

 

[Marisa Starbrook]

23 hours ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Ahhh very cool! I figured LL might have a way to swap them out quickly so they don't have wasted sims just hanging around empty once the houses start to lose their luster. The landscaping in Belliseria is very nice and it would be a shame to not see those sims used at some point.

When Bellisseria was first new, and there was much anguish about the housing (especially houseboats) shortage; I floated the idea of connecting the old Linden continents to the Blake Sea. @Patch Lindenexplained to me at the time, that he and the team had looked at a variety of scenarios for the old continents. It was going to take too much work to redesign them and move them. They would eventually be deleted. 

[Lloyd Overland]

1 hour ago, Marisa Starbrook said:

When Bellisseria was first new, and there was much anguish about the housing (especially houseboats) shortage; I floated the idea of connecting the old Linden continents to the Blake Sea. @Patch Lindenexplained to me at the time, that he and the team had looked at a variety of scenarios for the old continents. It was going to take too much work to redesign them and move them. They would eventually be deleted. 

Interesting and in line with what I had read. It remains my view though that it would be a real shame to erase everything as while much of the old Linden continents are very 'cookie cutter' with dense housing there are some lovely features that I really hope they can relocate. Maybe a few regions could be saved and relocated next to the Linden staff regions in north east Sansara as a museum of what once was.

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Lloyd Overland
Correct typo

[Abnor Mole]

On 2/16/2021 at 10:16 AM, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Ahhh very cool! I figured LL might have a way to swap them out quickly so they don't have wasted sims just hanging around empty once the houses start to lose their luster. The landscaping in Belliseria is very nice and it would be a shame to not see those sims used at some point.

Because the homes are in a rezzer on each region, we have the ability to update them with updated or even new houses. The part that is most difficult (besides making and QAing the actual houses) is the massive scale of what an update requires. Each region would only take a minute or two to update. There are just SO MANY of them. 

[Evangeline Ling]

28 minutes ago, Abnor Mole said:

Because the homes are in a rezzer on each region, we have the ability to update them with updated or even new houses. The part that is most difficult (besides making and QAing the actual houses) is the massive scale of what an update requires. Each region would only take a minute or two to update. There are just SO MANY of them. 

(Looks Into the future a few years from now)

Patch Linden: Abnor, GREAT job on Bellisseria you finally finished it!!!

Abnor Mole: Thanks Patch!

Patch Linden: For your next trick I want you to update ALL of them!

Abnor Mole: ...

😆

Edited February 17, 2021 by Evangeline Ling

[Nika Talaj]

It'll be interesting to see if LL ever updates Belli because homes look dated.  If Belli homes get out-of-fashion looking, wouldn't the landscaping  also look dated, and isn't LH landscaping impossible to update?  It's not scripted.  Less of an issue for houseboats and stilts, and I hope LL does eventually add more models to those regions.  Live on a Mississippi riverboat! 

I think the landscaping in both the trailer and log regions is so beautiful and flexible that changing home designs there is a definite possibility.  I don't see that landscaping showing age anytime soon.

But I can't see ever updating the Vics, even if the homes become old-looking.  They seem so wedded to the neighborhood designs.  I could see updating their interior layout, of course.

And the trads ... hmmm.  More open interiors would be a blessing, and they could always update the exteriors with more and better details, and possibly make it easier to make addons fit more organically with the house.  Maybe make a trad that's just plain larger.  But in the case of the trads, region designs matured greatly as they were built. I could see a few of the early inland trad regions becoming rather empty, ones with rows of houses on straight streets separated by rather bare-looking hedges or walls, once enough Belli homes exist to get ahead of demand. 

And I can't see LL ever updating Belli region designs.

 

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Nika Talaj

[Dyna Mole]

As Abnor says, we have ways to replace or update existing content in Bellisseria fairly easily.  That's sometimes necessary when we discover that there's a flaw in something like a tree or a wall that we've deployed.  It's also a key element of our flexible design for the new Linden Homes regions -- a way to keep them from getting dated too quickly.

If you look in the notecard that's in the Content Pack in your house controller (mailbox) , you'll find a sentence that says something like "Please note also that Linden Lab may offer new house models or upgraded versions of existing ones from time to time. When that happens, current residents will be notified. You may choose to use the House Controller to select a new model or upgrade at any time."  Unless there's some really critical reason to do it, we're not likely to update your own house ourselves because that could mess up custom colors or other custom features. As that sentence says, we'll let you know that an upgrade is available, leaving you with the choice to rez the new version from your house controller.  Similarly, if we ever decide to add completely new house models to current themes, we'll just add them to your house controller and let you decide whether to rez them.

[Mollymews]

i think that if there was one update that people would most like for their homes, it would be additional home texture packs

a argument against this is that it can add load to the viewer (more textures to download). The counter argument is that when people do want to change the home textures then they have to skin the building with prim/mesh objects as well as adding textures

[Dyna Mole]

18 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

i think that if there was one update that people would most like for their homes, it would be additional home texture packs

As you know, there are a few textures in the Content Packs already, so that's not a bad thing to wish for.  There's a limit to how many more would be useful, though. Surfaces in the homes are all mesh faces, and the textures are UV matched to them.  With the exception of some very flat surfaces like walls, our textures wouldn't look good at all on most add-ons.  Textures that we use for woodwork, doors, railings, and many other parts of the house can't simply be dropped on other objects.  Most surfaces in the homes also have normal and specular textures that add subtle depth and vibrancy; again, these are designed for the specific mesh faces that we put them on. 

[Mollymews]

2 minutes ago, Dyna Mole said:

As you know, there are a few textures in the Content Packs already, so that's not a bad thing to wish for.  There's a limit to how many more would be useful, though. Surfaces in the homes are all mesh faces, and the textures are UV matched to them.  With the exception of some very flat surfaces like walls, our textures wouldn't look good at all on most add-ons.  Textures that we use for woodwork, doors, railings, and many other parts of the house can't simply be dropped on other objects.  Most surfaces in the homes also have normal and specular textures that add subtle depth and vibrancy; again, these are designed for the specific mesh faces that we put them on. 

yes. It would pretty much require any new texture packs to be made by you the mole people

is probably the simplest way (given that the UVs  already exist) to refresh existing buildings when time ages them. New paint can work quite well