How to use 5000 Li in a Homestead and make it look like 20 000 Li?

[Persephone Emerald]

Look at Studio Skye for gorgeous lower land impact landscaping. Perhaps you can hide land textures that look stretched with rocks & plants? 

I'm not sure, but I think Linden plants don't count against land impact? They're pretty ugly, but some might work as underwater plants.

[Fay Starlight]

13 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Since LL will let people with Premium Plus buy a Homestad without buying a full region first, I predict it will be a lot more new Homestad owners.

Me? I am thinking about it, thinking about the costs, VAT and all that. But it sounds tempting.

So are there people who has owned or rented Homestads and filled them up so well that they are 100% satisfied with only 5000 Li?

I love to fill up empty spaces. I want houses that has clutter. More than one house. I am also really into landscaping. I want flowers, trees, grasses and rocks.

And a Homestead is a really big palette to fill. How do you manage it? I am thinking that landscaping 1/3 to water is maybe the way to go. But I want things under water too. I will find it hard to ignore the sea totally and let it stay 0 Li.

Using low li forests on parts of the land is a good idea, but it must be parts of the land I don't live in or walk through. Because if I do, I want better quality trees and landscaping details.

We can choose textures freely on a Homestead ground? I have never owned land that let me do it. Is it so that several parts can be textured? Like under water, one texture, the 0 - 10 m, a second texture, 10 - 20 m, a third texture? What is the number of ground textures one can use?

I am thinking that really good textures may reduce the need for landscaping, there is no need to hide ugly textures anymore.

Just make your land mass smaller, I mean you can make it a small island or big, depending on your taste and the level of detail!

[Katherine Heartsong]

12 minutes ago, Fay Starlight said:

Just make your land mass smaller, I mean you can make it a small island or big, depending on your taste and the level of detail!

One big main island to live on, with a windswept, rocky, wave-lashed little island off the shore ... perhaps with a little stone cottage, a lone tree, or an abandoned lighthouse?

And a few rocky depths for the mermaids to frolic

Edited October 26, 2022 by Katherine Heartsong

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

6 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

That looks very interesting! I had no idea I could do so much with textures - changing elevation was totally new to me. I thought the numbers were fixed and that I only could select textures in the layers.

Do all who rent out, allow tenants to change textures? 

It really is fun to play with the ways you can customize a region that you have full perms on. When I had a full region, I did not want to do all the terraforming to get it started (I bought it from LL so it was just a square), so I bought a nice RAW terrain file on MP. Then I did some exploring to find various terrain textures I liked, and wound up using a combination from Studio Skye and Vita's. I had elevations from beach up to small mountains, with some rivers and a lake.  

[Marianne Little]

Well, I finally got around to read the latest LL Lab Gap information:

Lab Gab with Grumpity and Patch – summary notes – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

And even if I'm not jumping up and down in exitement, I have started to feel optimistic. "Hopefully good news for Euròpean Premium Plus subscribers". Can it be a removal of the dreaded VAT, that LL has found a loophole? The added on VAT for tier means I pay 25 dollars more for every hundred in tier.

Quote

Premium Plus will be able to hold a Homestead regions without having to pay for a Full region (so Premium + subscription + $109 a month tier for a Homestead).

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I can guess that some, maybe many, who rent a Homestead now will stop renting and buy a Homestead direct from Linden Lab. This Homestead is theirs, and not just rented from another resident.

It will be more Homesteads available for rent. That's good for me, if the surprise for Europeans is not about VAT.

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Marianne Little

[Marianne Little]

I rent enough Mainland to have 4921 prims (Li).

This is on 3 different regions, one ordinary 4098 m parcel, and two parcels with double prims.

Ahhh, it is such a wonderful feeling to have double prims on a smaller size land. 🥰

It would be some benefits to have all in one place. But more land to fill. I can landscape three islands on a Homestead.

People coming and going on Mainland does not bother me at all. So that does not matter. 

It is about the money I pay, it is the most important part. Today, a Homestad would cost me 109 US + 25% VAT. If I did not have to pay VAT, it would be more interesting.

But the cost for Premium Plus and purchasing a Homestad is also something I have to consider. 

[Raspberry Crystal]

I'm excited to see what you might achieve with a homestead @Marianne Little. Changing the ground textures becomes an interesting diversion in itself. I've found that you can control odd patches with 'slight terraforming', ie digging out or raising up just a little.
I have had more success in landscapes with less height difference, where the texture changes are squashed together. For instance you can create a beach this way which has both dry and wet sand of the same type, the dry sand being activated at only a slightly higher height than the wet.
The quality of the textures can make up for missing 'prims', you don't need to hide the ground quite so much, as you have said yourself.

[Marianne Little]

Yes... a Homestad let me play more than with 3 separate Mainland parcels. It is tempting.

On the other side, Mainland is the most affordable place to rent. I was looking at some Anshe Chung Homesteads. They cost (6699) 6700 L per week. It is probably as cheap as I can get them. I saw other places, that cost 7000 per week.

Compared to that, I pay 3400 for almost 5000 prims. This is because I found a real estate agent that rent out double prim parcels to a very affordable price. It was my lucky day.

 

 

[Rowan Amore]

22 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

Yes... a Homestad let me play more than with 3 separate Mainland parcels. It is tempting.

On the other side, Mainland is the most affordable place to rent. I was looking at some Anshe Chung Homesteads. They cost (6699) 6700 L per week. It is probably as cheap as I can get them. I saw other places, that cost 7000 per week.

Compared to that, I pay 3400 for almost 5000 prims. This is because I found a real estate agent that rent out double prim parcels to a very affordable price. It was my lucky day.

 

 

I've rented from DreamSeekers Estates  for almost my entire SL and where I rented my homestead.   Right now, they have  2 homesteads available for 6099L/week.  I'll PM you their website.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Rowan Amore

[Qie Niangao]

Until yesterday's Concierge & Land user group, I'd assumed that costs for a Premium Plus standalone Homestead would be higher than for a (non-grandfathered) Homestead owned by an Estate that also has Full Regions, but a Linden suggested in chat that they may be the same. Of course the big Estates have other discounts, including those grandfathered Homesteads (at least I think those still exist), so they have some built-in pricing advantage anyway, and the Premium Plus subscription fee adds a further barrier, so they don't really have grounds for their inevitable protestations when the Plus offer is announced.

Anyway, Homesteads currently cost US$ 109/mo (plus VAT, with a one-time US$ 149 set-up fee). That seems to work out to about L$ 6288/week (using L$250/US$) so savings seem minimal at best, compared to renting through Estates. Cost isn't the sole consideration here, of course.

[Marianne Little]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:37 PM, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

It really is fun to play with the ways you can customize a region that you have full perms on. When I had a full region, I did not want to do all the terraforming to get it started (I bought it from LL so it was just a square), so I bought a nice RAW terrain file on MP. Then I did some exploring to find various terrain textures I liked, and wound up using a combination from Studio Skye and Vita's. I had elevations from beach up to small mountains, with some rivers and a lake.  

Oh, the Vita's terrain textures look so wonderful. And affordable. Studio Skye is expensive. But at least he includes two textures in the Pebble beach. I have used them many places. I prefer a bit more rugged sand, not pure sand.

But I suppose I will spend money on more of his packs. I have all his beaches, but I must buy the Rocky shore set. And his waterfall and river.

I am planning. I need a big space for my Spanish house, but around it there will be grass, maybe lavender fields? That does not use lots of Li. Wasn't it a region or homestead "Wimberley"? It was a windmill and a old farm, and fields all around.

I really want a homestad now. Maybe the rent will be dropped a bit, if people leave the rentals to buy a homestad directly from LL. But first, plans. It appears to be lots of homesteads available for rent.

[Chic Aeon]

So I have been thinking about this thread lately as I wander and improve my rental homestead.  I am still not convinced Premium Plus plus 109 a month and I am guessing a set up fee but what I did read seemed inconclusive (I read quickly so may have missed something).  I pay the same amount per month depending on how you work out the exchange rate.  Note however that "I" pay in lindens so there IS no exchange rate and selling lindens adds a cost there. Also you have the cost of Premium Plus which may or may not be helpful for you in other areas but that adds 20 USD a month or more ish depending on how you pay.  

 

So while I do expect some folks will go for the elitistness of owning their OWN sim   others will likely just keep renting. 

MEANWHILE as I look around my homestead which now house a large gallery, 24 boutique galleries and 4 stand alone large gallery (most are filled with art) and still see my fps at 125 I honestly believe the trick to making things look like MORE is the landscape items you pick. 

After oh so many years I finally purchased *alirium* DwarfForest [OldGold] mostly because every impressively landscaped sim I had lived in used these a LOT.    They can be trees, they can be bushes and they can be spun to look differently all for 3 LI. 

 

Rocks are super important for me too and the Black Forest Boulder 1 v.018  (big set) is one land impact at BIG size and has texture change options and very good LODs.  

So those are my person tips. 

PS. I still have well over 1000 land impact to use up.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Chic Aeon
adding info

[Marianne Little]

I have a weakness for Li heavy houses.... I sincerely doubt I will have more than 10-12 land impact left to open packs. 😁 Not 1000.

One of my beloved houses is the Hacienda La Veleta from Hisa, and need I say more? 

To be able to set up a house that feels just right, and not one that is "ok" is very nice.

 

[Lyric Demina]

Marianne, I think you would have a wonderful time on a homestead with all that personal control.  The question about how you would fill it up is answered best by learning as you do it because it will never be a finished product; it would be super boring if it were ever actually "finished."  It's a project that you would want to dedicate a lot of creative emotional and intellectual energy to, and as you already know also a lot of money.  But for all this, the reward is a never-ending project of refining, more better decisions, more thoughtful ideas, more creative solutions, as time goes on, for as long as the money lasts.  The evolution of what you consider to be The Ideal.  Personally, I believe you would love the experience.   I think you already have practiced so much on other parcels for quite a few years!

Chic's idea of practicing first on a rental is pretty clever too.  You will see for yourself for a week how much fun it is and that you probably have already all the things you will need

 

[Sparkely Sugar]

An example of one of the Homesteads I have landscaped.  Besure to let the video load

 

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Edited November 1, 2022 by Sparkely Sugar

[Stephanie Misfit]

22 hours ago, Sparkely Sugar said:

An example of one of the Homesteads I have landscaped.  Besure to let the video load

 

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Oh yes, I saw that before. Amazing work, I want to live there!

[Marianne Little]

23 hours ago, Sparkely Sugar said:

An example of one of the Homesteads I have landscaped.  Besure to let the video load

 

Visit Aurelias

Region Developer - Sparkely Sugar

See More on Sparkle's Flickr

SparkleSkye.com

Sparkle on Facebook

 

 

That is a homestead? 👀❤️ I must say that you have done a solid job there. I would think you used more than 5000 Li.