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): Drag copy the object Ctrl-Z it back to the original spot (now you have two of the same object) Rez a prim in the same region Link one of the objects to that prim, making the prim the root Turn on Edit Linked and grab JUST the prim root. Move just the root over the border to the other region (and inside the object) 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.

We wanted some of the different areas of the live built regions to be... well... different. We could have made them all like the houseboats in the "squishy pickle" but where is the fun in that? If we can mash things up a bit we can come up with areas that are new and unique.

The numbers are the x,y coordinates of the controller (rounded). So 182114 would be located at approximately <182,144> (region name).

This is what is meant by a "sky sign". It is two prims linked together. One is yellow. The other is blue. There is no texture on the surface, just a color tint on the top with the remaining sides set to fully transparent. It must be below 400m in the air to display on the world map. These sort of objects are not allowed under the Bellisseria covenant, but are allowed on Mainland. For SLB last year the Lindens were able to put a graphic of the SLB logo on a map tile over a void region. That may be one way to do it, but I cannot say if they are open to that idea for continent names or not. However, that would probably be a preferable method over any sort of floating prims above the land or sea.

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If you mean like how people do sky signs on the world map it would be slightly more complicated than that. A "texture on a prim" does not display on the world map. The signs you see there are made up of colored prims.

It's important to remember that Bellisseria and Mainland are two different products and residents can choose which one appeals to them more. Mainland's appeal is having a high level of freedom and choice. If you want that unfettered freedom with the understanding that your neighbors also have that same level of freedom, then Mainland (and all of its potentially chaotic quirkiness) is for you. Bellisseria's appeal is a structured environment. If you're willing to forgo some of that freedom in exchange for small parcel in more organized and regulated surroundings, then Bellisseria (with its greatly reduced risk of discordance) may be a better option for you. Different strokes for different folks.

The reason for the prohibition against dropboxes is two fold. One is the commercial nature and the other is simulator resources. We don't want residents running in world businesses getting a Linden Home just for the purpose of hosting their dropboxes (even if they are just backups). That is not what they are for and there are plenty of places on mainland or private estates where they can do that. Considering that in some cases we've seen residents with large stores keeping 20 or more boxes with 200+ items in each box... that is a lot of server resources in Bellisseria regions that are meant to be shared with as many as two dozen or so other residents. Imagine the consequences on region performance if hosting 50 or 100 dropboxes in Bellisseria became a commonplace thing and we hope you can see why we decided to clarify that dropboxes are not allowed. Even if they are only backups that it isn't something we can easily verify. (In case anyone was wondering, Moles do not have any sort of additional access to Caspervend systems. We have recently been made aware that Caspervend documentation recommends using Linden Homes as a backup dropbox location and we are asking to have that information updated.) What is allowed is you could work on a vendor in the privacy of your Linden Home as long as you don't leave it active and operational where people could use it. Likewise, you also can have a redelivery terminal in your home (not tied to your store). We know many residents like having one so they can easily connect to the website and see all of their past purchases. The only thing that terminal really does is connect you to the website so it is not an overly significant use of resources the same way dropboxes would be. I haven't personally looked at the "beYou" systems in depth, but regardless of whether the creators believe their system is compliant with the Linden Homes covenant or not, I suspect they could easily run afoul of provisions against disproportionate amount of system resources, would be subject to breedables/farming guidelines, and if objects are set for sale on the parcel it falls under commercial activity. I have seen other systems for growing more shall we say... "recreational" crops of questionable RL legality depending where you live... and I am guessing they work in a similar fashion. Finally, just to address the point that dropboxes can be renamed or placed in/under other objects... if the inference is that people can simply try to hide them from being found I would not advise going down that path. As estate managers we operate under the "assume ignorance before malice" doctrine. AFAIK Governance does as well. That means we always assume the person simply does not know unless proven otherwise and we tailor our actions regarding the situation taking that into consideration. If it is clear a person is actively trying to hide a dropbox from being found then that negates the assumption of ignorance. In that case our actions could likely change accordingly. Meaning instead of discretely notifying the owner and giving them time to find an alternate location, we may instead decide to simply return the boxes without a warning and could refer repeat offenders to Governance. And that right there is why you saw the notices in the first place. We know many people simply don't know the Covenant is even there and that is something we want to change. I hope that helps.

The Covenant reminder that went out as just a general reminder. It wasn't necessarily tied to a change. We did make a small change to clarify that renting and subletting parcels is not allowed (it would be considered commercial activity, but we felt it was important enough to mention it specifically). The section regarding delivery servers, dropboxes and working vendors has been in there for a few months now. As far as I know GTFO cargo boxes don't actually deliver anything. The HUD you wear to play communicates with their server as part of the game. No actual products change hands and no L$ is involved. That is very different from something like several dropboxes with potentially hundreds of different products being delivered across the grid from a Linden Homes region. It's both a question of commercial use and disproportionate use of system resources.

Ummm... I think you may be mistaken about the newness of those roads. I don't believe the road there has been replaced. They were done by Bloomin Mole, so they would date back to... *checks his memory* 2008 maybe? 2009? As far as the terrain goes when parcel nearby are drastically terraformed it can cause the terrain nearby to roughen like that. I was able to gently smooth those spots poking through the road a bit though.

Only of the vehicle was parked on the resident's parcel or if there was not enough LI for the entire region. The houses rez on and are rooted on the main parcel. (That is how they do not count against your parcel LI)

This is actually a good example of what Quartz and I have mentioned in other threads. Disabling scripts on your parcel tends to be more of an inconvenience for your visitors than an effective counter measure to griefing. Anyone bent on causing trouble knows how to get around scripts being disabled but you or your friends may not and might just be confused or assume something is broken.

One thing that wasn't touched upon before is that if someone is seated upon a vehicle and it would overflow the parcel LI if they stood up, you won't be able to rez anything else on the parcel until they do or the vehicle moves out of the parcel. On a few occasions we've found people with huge LI "mega yachts" moored for long periods of time on homestead regions with an afk account seated on them to prevent them from being returned. There are places in the Blake Sea where people do that, but in Bellisseria (depending on the region) it could prevent anyone from being able to use the rezzing zone in the region or be able to re-rez their homes if it is in a region with houses. When we find people doing that we generally return it to them to dissuade people from the practice.

Yes. That is the difference between an object that is a true vehicle and just a moving object that someone is sitting on. An object that moves using LlSetVehicleFlags is different than one being edit dragged or using LlMoveToTarget. The system allows a vehicle but not one that is just a physical object trying to move to a point on the parcel. Even of something looks like a car or a space ship to us what really matters is how its motion is scripted. They both may appear to us to be a vehicle, but the system only treats one of them as one when it comes to being immune to object entry.

I think what were saying is no matter what settings you use "people are gonna people". My personal recommendation is to take those sort of things in stride as part of living in a vast virtual world where anything is possible. Rather than getting upset (even justifiably) I would do any or all of the following: Kick and ban them Point, laugh and compliment them on both their alts Give them a landmark to a free part banging region Rez an invisible object near them I can touch that makes the 'taking a snapshot' sound over and over Start talking to them like I'm the world's worst dirty movie director Send them links to the page where they can get their own home or my personal favorite (assuming they are sitting on something I own and can modify): Copy drag it outside with them on it and drop in a script that makes it temp, physical, with just a touch of negative gravity... and watch as they bump their way off into the sky to parts unknown. Not that I have ever actually done any of that. 🤭

But... they could rez poseballs outside the parcel where rezzing is allowed, sit on them, select the best animation of their preferred aforementioned banging of said parts, and then edit move them into the parcel where rezzing is not allowed. Where there is a willy there is a way.

Yes, yes you can. Unfortunately, even if scripts and object entry are off an enterprising person could still find a way to "bang parts" in your PG bed if they are that determined. 🙄

There area lot of misconceptions about how the land setting work and people who simply don't know or understand. I once had someone with a 0 warning orb teleporting people home argue they needed it because strangers were leaving thing on their parcel. The parcel was set completely open with no autoreturn so the orb was not stopping anyone from rezzing objects on their land, but they were still convinced it did because they hadn't had anything left on their parcel since.

Vehicles (and objects people are sitting on) are handled differently than normal non-physical objects. Not allowing object entry will not keep out a vehicle. It also will allow any object to move into the parcel if a person is sitting on it. That is what allows you to rez something on your land and edit move it outside the parcel if you sit on it first. In both cases however, if the object would overflow the parcel then the object is not allowed in (if the person is just sitting on it) or it is returned to the owner when the person stands (in the case of a vehicle). Their object is not allowed to be moved into the parcel or is returned, not any of yours. Special note: If the object would not overflow the parcel the object WILL stay on the parcel, even if they do not have rezzing rights.* Most vehicles will also work just fine if you have scripts turned off for everyone (Although I've never personally seen the point. There are so many ways to grief a person if you really wanted to that don't rely on scripts working that it doesn't really serve much of a purpose other than an added annoyance to legitimate guests.) The most that usually happens is if they use a HUD the vehicle doesn't respond to it, but the keyboard control inputs to move/turn/etc still do. *This is why you occasionally see a boat or an airplane buzzing away in someone's parcel even though Object Entry is unchecked and they have "locked down" rezzing and scripts on the parcel but no autoreturn. The person driving has either left, crashed, had a bad region crossing, etc leaving the vehicle behind. THIS is why autoreturn is your friend and I always highly encourage people learn to use it rather than only relying on just turning everything off and assuming that will do the trick. With a reasonable autoreturn setting you can usually leave many of those other things open for the most part without too many worries.

What are your favorite vehicles you use to explore around Bellisseria? Where do you like to go and why? Please share with slurls if you have them!

Yes, this. The group to list your events on the boards and the access to the parcel radios are managed by us Moles and both are open to anyone who wishes to request an invite. And naturally we would be the ones dealing with anyone abusing the privilege as well.

My suggestion stays the same. If you want to throw parties and DJ with the expectation of being paid for services by asking for tips, find or build a club on mainland or a private estate. Many private estates also designate whether clubs or businesses are allowed on their regions for similar reasons Bellisseria does. It is not a new concept.

Yes, this is true. Community centers are by definition public spaces. You could have a party like the one you described, you just have to be ready to accept the random person may show up and ask what all the fuss is about.