Come and get your Homesteads (P+ only, of course)

[Rowan Amore]

3 hours ago, Istelathis said:

I believe you can purchase terrain maps on the marketplace for your homestead, although I can't find any for the linden homestead maps.

Homesteads are.the same size as a full region so any of those will work.

Something like this will work on full or homestead...

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/FlowScapes-Raw-file-RAW-Terrain-file/495864

Edited November 3, 2022 by Rowan Amore

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I didn't want to terraform the region I had last year, so I bought and used this one. I really liked it:  https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Mountain-Valley-RAW-Terrain-File/3914709

[Rowan Amore]

15 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

I didn't want to terraform the region I had last year, so I bought and used this one. I really liked it:  https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Mountain-Valley-RAW-Terrain-File/3914709

That's the same one I used.  Really nice.

 

[Allebella]

Wait, so the only additional benefit is being allowed to have a Homestead but we still pay the exact same price as every other account/person that has a Homestead and we aren't able to throw any of our 2048 towards it???!!! I don't see this as a benefit. smh

[Nika Talaj]

17 hours ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

The downside is that it's SL and finding anyone to 100% trust to keep sharing that sim cost, pay on time, and maintain a sim you both like looking at is a crap shoot.

Yah.  This is not something you'd want to do with just a pal, it's a sure way to ruin a friendship.  My partner and I spoke to each other RL every night for years, we knew each other's RL relations and financial situations, there was a lot of trust -- frankly, the fiscal aspect was not nearly the most important aspect of the trust between us.

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 hours ago, Allebella said:

Wait, so the only additional benefit is being allowed to have a Homestead but we still pay the exact same price as every other account/person that has a Homestead and we aren't able to throw any of our 2048 towards it???!!! I don't see this as a benefit. smh

Many people have been asking for this exact benefit though --- to be able to buy a Homestead without having to first buy a full region.  Those folks have always been fine with the costs of the Homestead part (as much as anyone is every happy having to pay for stuff), but not wanting to have the additional cost of a regular full region also.

[Gingir Ghoststar]

I want to be excited by this. I do. However, I can't, and here is why. This is going to be great for small store owners and maybe couples where one person is premium plus. However, you can't apply your tier to this, so you're still paying the full price minus the full region. I would like to see EVERYONE, not just prime+, be able to own homesteads without needing to own a full region. I've always abhorred the idea that you'd need to own a full region to own a homestead. I think, and this is just me looking at it without the backside info on land sales, that if LL were to open homesteads, and something smaller like the small personal islands with a linden home that you can bid on at the Relay for Life events, to EVERYONE, they might find that brings in more money than this idea. I mean, think of it. You have people who pay 4 or 5 (or more) premium accounts and have multiple Bellisseria homes. I'd bet that if you'd offer some archipelago islands connected water way to the Bellisseria continent with single homes for premium plus members for a smaller fee, folks would jump all over that.

[Edborough Evergarden]

My question is that I rent a homestead region from a friend.  She is willing to transfer ownership to me, but would that qualify for this or would I have to but a NEW homestead region?

[Gabriele Graves]

48 minutes ago, Edborough Evergarden said:

My question is that I rent a homestead region from a friend.  She is willing to transfer ownership to me, but would that qualify for this or would I have to but a NEW homestead region?

You'd have to put in a support ticket to not only ask but to find out what you'd need to do should it be allowed.

[Lyric Demina]

11 hours ago, Edborough Evergarden said:

My question is that I rent a homestead region from a friend.  She is willing to transfer ownership to me, but would that qualify for this or would I have to but a NEW homestead region?

that's an interesting question to ask because, if that is allowed, then wouldn't that cut out a setup fee you'd have to pay i.e. would that make it a cheaper option for you to own a homestead?  i.e. Does a setup fee still apply if the homestead already exists, I guess is the question.  I've never owned regions or homesteads or estates, just my tiny little bits of mainland; so I don't really know how it all works yet; but I'd love to know the answer to that question.

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Julia Lygon said:

that's an interesting question to ask because, if that is allowed, then wouldn't that cut out a setup fee you'd have to pay i.e. would that make it a cheaper option for you to own a homestead?  i.e. Does a setup fee still apply if the homestead already exists, I guess is the question.  I've never owned regions or homesteads or estates, just my tiny little bits of mainland; so I don't really know how it all works yet; but I'd love to know the answer to that question.

Any region transfer has a Transfer fee.  For a Homestead it is $100 or $150, depending on whether grandfathering of fees is included.  So LL would still get some money.  Not sure what fee they would charge for a Homestead transfer to a P+ account, but I'd guess that they will do it.

https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/managing-private-regions-r50/#Section__3_1

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Wulfie Reanimator]

On 11/3/2022 at 10:13 AM, Allebella said:

Wait, so the only additional benefit is being allowed to have a Homestead but we still pay the exact same price as every other account/person that has a Homestead and we aren't able to throw any of our 2048 towards it???!!! I don't see this as a benefit. smh

Without Premium Plus, it costs you $4554 to own a Homestead region for the first year.
Without Premium Plus, it costs you $3097 to own a Full region for the first year.
With Premium Plus, it costs you $1706 to own a Homestead region for the first year (and stipends cover the setup).

That benefit is nothing to scoff at, you literally can't get a sim for cheaper, even if we agree that region prices are still too expensive.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Oshun Emor]

Got mine and decided to give my terraforming skills a try, hehehe. Worth the 2 days work

[Elora Lunasea]

Hoping someone has a quick answer for me because G and I have tried finding this online to no avail.

Subdivided the land so that Ghosty can have a portion to himself - we want different music streams, for instance and since he might sometimes hold (small) events I want to keep part of it private for myself.

Made him an estate manager. He can terraform and rez objects but can't set media/sound.  Tried to do a sim reset but that didn't help. Tried selling him the parcel and that didn't work. 

He's unable to set anything in "About Land" also.

I'm sure it's just some small setting we've missed. Thanks.

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Elora Lunasea

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Elora Lunasea said:

Hoping someone has a quick answer for me because G and I have tried finding this online to no avail.

Subdivided the land so that Ghosty can have a portion to himself - we want different music streams, for instance and since he might sometimes hold (small) events I want to keep part of it private for myself.

Made him an estate manager. He can terraform and rez objects but can't set media/sound.  Tried to do a sim reset but that didn't help. Tried selling him the parcel and that didn't work. 

He's unable to set anything in "About Land" also.

I'm sure it's just some small setting we've missed. Thanks.

 

Along with subdividing, did he 'purchase' the land?  That usually sets all the rights correctly.

If you own the land and subdivide, you can 'sell' the land to G for 1L.  He then 'owns' that section and can do what he wants.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Rowan Amore

[Elora Lunasea]

25 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Along with subdividing, did he 'purchase' the land?  That usually sets all the rights correctly.

If you own the land and subdivide, you can 'sell' the land to G for 1L.  He then 'owns' that section and can do what he wants.

That was the first thing we tried. No luck.

Should I be deeding the land to my group?

Or maybe we shouldn't make him an estate manager?

May have to call LL oy

Edited November 5, 2022 by Elora Lunasea

[Rowan Amore]

31 minutes ago, Elora Lunasea said:

That was the first thing we tried. No luck.

Should I be deeding the land to my group?

Or maybe we shouldn't make him an estate manager?

May have to call LL oy

Sub dividing land SHOULD give each parcel.autonomy.  Does his name appear on his parcel in About Land as owner?

[Emma Krokus]

I found in the past that changing land permissions etc. requires a relog before "taking". Might be worth a go if you haven't tried that already

[Rowan Amore]

It also could be related to this although it says fixed.  Might be ticket worthy.

https://secondlife-status.statuspage.io/incidents/812j37wk2j0s

[Elora Lunasea]

We figured it out, finally!

It was because Ghosty set himself as a manager and tried to sell himself the land.

/facepalm

Live and learn! We are good now!

[Cackle Amore]

On 11/3/2022 at 3:13 AM, Allebella said:

Wait, so the only additional benefit is being allowed to have a Homestead but we still pay the exact same price as every other account/person that has a Homestead and we aren't able to throw any of our 2048 towards it???!!! I don't see this as a benefit. smh

Homestead is cheaper than a fullsim, but until now you couldn't get a homestead directly from LL without getting a fullsim first.

So now those that want a homestead of their own instead of renting one have an option for that if they're willing to pay the additional monthly fee of 30$ for the premium plus. Or save an extra 100 bucks by getting the yearly option for plus.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Cackle Amore

[Abnor Mole]

As far as terraforming an entire region yourself goes... (as someone who has literally done thousands of them) I can offer a few quick tips for those who want to try their hand at it on a homestead:

Always start with the lower size and strength settings for the terraforming tool and gradually move higher. Don't try it the other way by cranking them up to 11 right off the bat unless you want huge pits or giants spikes reaching up to the sky.

You may notice a button under them called "Apply". Forget that is even there. It does just what it says it does, applies the current tool at its current settings across the entire parcel. If your parcel is a whole region and you have Flatten at Maximum Strength selected your entire region will be instantly flat. I highly recommend NOT getting in the habit of using this button or you could easily find yourself wiping out hours or days of fastidious work with one click. And there is no ctrl-z undo. You've been warned.

As the region owner you will be able to Bake the terrain and save it as a RAW file. DO this. That is your version of a "save". If the terrain is baked then you can use the revert tool if you make a mistake. And if you saved the RAW file you can use that to return the terrain to a previous state even if you baked it afterward. 

You'll have access to the Region/Estate > Terrain options. Play with the water levels. No one says you can't Also experiment with the terrain textures and their levels. Drastic changes in those numbers from corner to opposing corner will give you things like a green island with a sandy beach to one side.

Overly stretched land textures always look ugly. If you want vertical cliffs use mesh ones and support them with terrain. If you want to avoid people getting stuck under/inside meshes or behind walls bring the terrain up underneath it. The way to avoid visible stretched land textures is to remember that the Smooth tool is your friend. Work the land to make hills and valleys, then use the Smooth to even them out. Then go back and flatten out parts again using a lighter touch each time. That is the best way to work in general. Make your big features to start and rough them in. Then make gradual passes getting finer and finer with each pass, smoothing rough areas to help avoid those areas where the land is *almost* flat but you can't just can't seem to get rid of the bumpiness.

Working underwater: There are two methods for terraforming underwater. One is Ctrl+Alt+Shift+7. That toggles water on/off so you can see what you are doing. If you have a 256x256 megaprim rez it on the region, set it to a high transparency at the water level and hide the water. The prim will show you where the water level is but still let you see the sea floor. The other is to use the Region/Estate options to lower the water on the region to general the depth you want and then terraforming the underwater parts of the terrain to the new water level. Then change the water level back up. I see so many regions where it looks like a lovely beach but as soon as you take a few steps into the water you sink 20m to the bottom and it makes me cry.

Perfectly flat land is boring. A natural flow of dips and hills makes SL look so much more immersive. Blend terrain into rocks, remembering that the rocks are there to give the idea there are more rocks underneath supporting the grass or sand or soil on top rather than someone dropped a huge rock on top of the land. 

And if you're lucky enough to have your region connect to another, remember this about region crossings... solid objects are only solid on their side of the border.. If you want a walkable crossing you need something solid on BOTH sides that extends into the next region for support during crossings. The closer to the physics of the object on the other side the better. For something simple like a road a flat plane or another section of the same road turned invisible usually will suffice. For more complex objects you can use this trick (assuming you can build on both sides):

1. Drag copy the object
2. Ctrl-Z it back to the original spot (now you have two of the same object)
3. Rez a prim in the same region
4. Link one of the objects to that prim, making the prim the root
5. Turn on Edit Linked and grab JUST the prim root.
6. Move just the root over the border to the other region (and inside the object)
7. Turn the whole linkset fully transparent

Now you have an object with the exact same physics on both sides of the border to support an avatar during a region border crossing.

[WereBeast Alpha]

I'm considering it because i want to be able to have my own home and create a small RP group first before moving into anything big. 

[Alwin Alcott]

7 hours ago, xxVi3perxx said:

I'm considering it because i want to be able to have my own home and create a small RP group first before moving into anything big. 

in that case, renting would be a more logical step, you can stop when you want.

[Toothless Draegonne]

"Congratulations, you can now give us $109+tax per month to get a region with quarter the prims and compute of a full region, without buying a full region."

"But only if you give us $250/year first."

What mentalist thought this was a good deal?

Edited November 14, 2022 by Toothless Draegonne