Matthieu Quander

Happy now? It cost a precious 3LI, but I finally got around to adding rails to the decks. I fought it for a long time, but it does feel more finished.

Thank you so much.

There is something about the water that draws people to it, and I think it goes way beyond the mere convenience it provides to those who like to sail, swim, surf, snorkel, etc. For this reason, Bellisseria parcels that are on or adjacent to water have always been the most coveted, regardless of the home theme. Thus, it is no wonder that themes that promote a watery lifestyle are among the most in demand. I enjoyed my coastal Traditional for long time before eventually giving it up to explore other themes. I currently have a Log Home, Stilt Home, and a Houseboat, and could not begin to pick a favorite among them, which is why I continue to hold on to all three in spite of spending less time in world right now. Either I am experiencing a bit of burnout, or am not finding any of the newer themes as endearing, but I still love the homes I have as much as I did when I first got them.

Coming soon to the "Has anyone seen my wallet" thread, "Has anyone seen my bridge." It should be a little easier to find.

Too bad it has that big yellow X on the roof, otherwise, it would be perfect.

Only you can answer that, but why not? You may not get the home you want right away, but if you don't try, you definitely won't.

I hope I'm not being viewed as one of the "entitled whiners." I simply like to see things finished. That northern Log Land coastline has been there a long time, relatively speaking, and seeing other theme areas get added with finished coastlines does make me question if they have had to abandon or delay plans to finish it for one reason or another. I do not think this is a case of adding regions that don't generate income, but I suppose that depends what they have/had planned there. My hope is that they are still working on something that is going to be north of that area, and it's simply not practical to put in the transitional regions at this time. I don't expect an explanation or a response, but knowing that there are definite plans to finish it at some point would be nice. Life will go on either way.

So the Lab may or may not add coastline to these void adjacent regions? Deciding to not add coastline there would be very disappointing. I'm not sure my OCD could handle it.

I agree, though it should be available to all Premium members, not just Premium Plus, as both can currently get all packs if they are willing to house swap for a couple of days. Since they wouldn't be giving us anything that we can't already get, I don't know why they don't make it easier to get them all. Countless suggestions for how to accomplish it without requiring too much time have been suggested multiple times. If it were me, I would simply include all themes in a single pack, and make that pack distributable in the same manner it is done now. It should only require swapping each theme's content pack with the new pack on the server side. Maintaining one pack has to be easier than maintaining several.

Yep. It was fun to see how far you could stretch that LI allowance.

I did not mean to rain on the parade. I was just providing some critical thought to the proposed new service because that is how I am wired. I understand and agree with the motivation for adding this service. I hope it works well and that people end up in homes they love, and that taking excessive advantage of the process is a rare or nonoccurrence.

Not to be a pessimist, but I do not see how this is going to work very well as a means for grabbing the more desirable locations, or even the undesirable ones. How many parcels that are available in the queue remain unclaimed for "usually a day or so?" It might work during a new release, or if supply for a given theme is ample, but I can see the competition for the best spots being fierce. If it is a "first come first served" situation, then this could just end up being the same scenario that frustrates so many with the current GOH process. The person with the most time and resources will monitor the release of a region, and will immediately put in tickets to claim everything on it as soon as the homes are available. We will then see the same posts about how unfair the system is by those who thought they would finally be able to get any home they want. I personally don't have any problem with the way things work now, or with the proposed ticket system, but I would advise those seeing it as a means for getting their dream home to temper expectations...unless I am missing something, which is always possible.

I agree, especially with the Grand View suggestion. From a functional standpoint, it is probably my favorite of all homes released to date. Those awesome vaulted ceilings really help with the claustrophobia, at least for me. The lack of an obvious bathroom space can easily be solved with an add-on.

For the sake of argument, I could have two 2048 homes, or five 1024 homes, or a combination of one of the former with two of the latter and $50 left to buy half a tank of gas. I'm not sure that the prospect of having twice the LI allowance is enough of a an inducement. The other perks don't really do anything for me with my current SL lifestyle.

Yes. I don't even bother trying to claim homes on my own anymore. I just wait for perfect spots to be handed to me whenever I want. It's great.

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the house controllers. https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:New_Linden_Homes_2019#House_controllers

The problem with this tactic is that only the textures are transferable. So if you like to use anything other than the textures in your builds, you are stuck using this one noob alt to do all of your content pack building. That's more of a minor inconvenience than deal breaker, but it can be annoying if you prefer that one alt does all of the shopping, building, and decorating. Of course, the alternative is to have your main alt always be a temporary home owner, leaving them free to claim new themes as they become available. Unfortunately, this pretty much guarantees that they will be the alt that gets all the keeper locations. The Game of Homes gods are cruel that way.

This one hits a bit close to home.

I know that a tier increase is a draw for many, but unless it means that I can claim multiple Linden Homes, it is of no value to me. I have no interest in mainland, and it has always bothered me that if I claim a 512 home, that my remaining 512 of tier is wasted. I want to be able to use all of my tier on Linden homes in any combination that allows me to use all of it. I don't care about groups, and I don't even fill all of the available slots I have now. While I can spend quite a bit on uploads from time to time, it is so sporadic, that I don't see that as much of an enticement either. Some of the future benefits might be interesting, but until they actually happen, I would not be very excited about paying for them. In short, the stipend increase is going to have to be very generous to sway me.

I agree with you. The stipend is not a loss for LL, it is a moneymaker. As you noted, it goes beyond the fact that most premium account holders are unlikely to cash in the L$ for RL funds. I further agree that for many of us, the stipend provided an introduction to the SL economy, which eventually led to additional recurring L$ purchases. While some might be content to limit their SL spending to what the stipend provides, I suspect most premium account holders buy additional L$. I think the assumption is that people would buy the equivalent $L received if there were no stipend, so that is potential revenue lost. While that might be true for some, it isn't true for everyone. This assumption also doesn't consider how many would cancel their premium accounts if there were no stipend, as it would be much less of a bargain. When you break it all down, the stipend is essentially a prepurchase of L$, which stimulates the SL economy, which in turn generates more revenue for LL, not less.

While it's nice that all of the shiny new themes are getting their coastlines, Logland (with a few Vic regions) still has this. I can only hum the Final Jeopardy music for so long.

Or the Pixies in this case.

To expand on JessycaJayne's response, for most Bellisseria home themes, the House Controller is the mailbox. Clicking on it will bring up a menu, that will allow you to select from all of the house models available for your theme. If you hover your mouse pointer over your current home, it will tell you which model it is. You would select that model from the House Controller menu to re-rez it, or you may decide to try out any of the others.

There's a fine line between taking inspiration from someone's home and blatantly stealing all of their ideas. Flattering though it may be, no one likes having their individuality stolen, and that's what this is. I have not had an entire home replicated, but certainly have had many design choices suddenly appear in nearby homes. It usually pushes me to use more items that people can't simply go buy. I am not a good enough builder to do that with everything, but it helps that I make my own add-ons and heavily modify many purchases. I enjoy having things that no one else has, but in a world where a talented person could conceivably build anything, it is impossible to guarantee uniqueness.

You may already know this, but as others may not, it is worth mentioning. Often when a modifiable item won't shrink, it is due to a member of the linkset being at the minimum size. Most often, it is the shadow object already being at minimum thickness. If you edit just the linked shadow object, and make it thicker, you can usually then shrink the entire linkset.